


Thicker Than Blood

by multifandom_fanatic



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (Movies)
Genre: Adopted Loki (Marvel), Adoption, Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Teenagers, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Banter, Bottom Loki (Marvel), Brother/Brother Incest, Brotherly Bonding, Brotherly Love, Developing Relationship, Drama, Drama & Romance, Family Drama, Feelings Realization, Fighting, First Kiss, Fluff, Frottage, Grinding, Hand Jobs, Happy Ending, Heavy Angst, Incest, Jealousy, Kissing, Loki riles Thor up, Lots of kissing, Love Confessions, M/M, POV Loki (Marvel), POV Thor (Marvel), Play Fighting, Possessive Behavior, Romance, Running Away, Science Experiments, Senior Thor, Sex, Sibling Incest, Sibling Love, Smut, Sophomore Loki, Teasing, Thor gets into fights, Thorki - Freeform, Thorki Big Bang 2018, Thunderfrost - Freeform, Top Thor (Marvel), Underage Drinking, Underage Sex, Underage Smoking, movie date night
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-29
Updated: 2018-10-29
Packaged: 2019-08-07 09:04:13
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 12
Words: 31,816
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16405394
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/multifandom_fanatic/pseuds/multifandom_fanatic
Summary: Loki and Thor are brothers joined at the hip. Despite the fact they’re part of completely different circles in high school, they always manage to find ways to spend time together in school or at home. There is no Thor without Loki and everyone knows it; they’re a package deal. But suddenly, Loki is forced to confront his recently discovered not-so-brotherly feelings towards Thor when a playful wrestling match sparks something dangerously tempting and oh so forbidden. Loki bolts and a sudden rift forms between the brothers; their usually solid bond teetering on the edge, causing them both to struggle without the other by their side. Just when things start to show a hint of returning to normalcy between the brothers, a curveball is thrown Loki’s way when he discovers a dark secret his parents have been hiding from him. Faced with the startling realization that Loki isn’t who he always thought he was, he and Thor are suddenly forced into discovering their true feelings for each other, and figuring out who they are separately and together.





	1. Chapter One (Thor's POV)

**Author's Note:**

> After months of writing, and starting over several times, I have finally finished this fic for my first ever Big Bang event! This story got away from me and took some twists and turns I never saw coming in the planning stages, but I am so pleased and happy with the final version! I hope you all enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it!
> 
> Please check out and share some love for the [amazingly beautiful artwork](https://meganedoodledog.tumblr.com/post/179537968592/here-is-my-final-piece-for-the-thorkibigbang-it) created by [@meganedoodledog](https://meganedoodledog.tumblr.com) which captures the pivotal moment in the story where Loki and Thor being to develop feelings for each other! Thank you so much, Via, for creating such breathtaking artwork! <3

Thor dropped down into his seat in the cafeteria, his back against the brown, rough, brick wall. Crowds of loud students from Freshman to Seniors burst into the room, long lines of laughing teenagers forming along the green and white tiled floor to collect greasy pizza or tasteless salads. Scents of burnt chicken mixed with slightly stale bread and fried grease to create a unique aroma; a smell which should have been repugnant, but didn’t faze Thor anymore.  

He observed the door for the appearance of his friends, but always passed time by watching the other students settle into their own cliques. Rugby players sat at the front of the cafeteria under the brightest lights, while the loners sat in the darkest corner of the room. Musicians took a table closer to the jocks, and the nerds sat nearer to the back of the room. While not seen as part of the ‘cool kids’, the group of art students always snagged a table closer to the jocks to take advantage of the brighter lights reflecting off the green and gray walls so they could work while they ate.

The misfit table Thor and his friends had created along the back wall suited them; a mixture of sports, arts, sciences, languages, and technology. He was always first at their table in the farthest corner of the lunch room since the French classroom was closest by, usually followed by Heimdall who detoured from the French classroom to his locker on the way to lunch to collect his calculus textbook. The tall Black Junior easily towered over the other students as he made his way across the cafeteria with packed lunch in hand and sat in the seat directly to Thor’s right. Never ones to have a quiet entrance, Volstagg, Fandral, and Hogun tumbled into the lunchroom, banging the door against the wall with a resounding slam as they playfully argued together, usually over which toppings were acceptable on pizza. The three students would continue whatever debate they were having as they got into the lunch line to grab pizza for lunch. Sif always entered the room after Volstagg, Fandral, and Hogun had, but she always beat them to the table as she picked up a salad on the way.

Sif took her usual place at the round table next to Heimdall, and, once they had grabbed their pizza, Hogun, Volstagg, and Fandral took the three seats directly opposite. That left one open seat at the table, directly to Thor’s left. While Thor enjoyed the company of his friends, he could never fully settle down until his brother strolled through the doors and meandered over to their table. Thor checked his watch. Lunch had started almost ten minutes ago and Loki still hadn’t shown up. His brother was usually a fashionable five minutes late to lunch every day, but as the extra minutes ticked by, Thor began to bounce his leg impatiently at his brother’s absence.

They were a package deal, him and Loki, and everyone knew it. The brothers were incredibly close, despite Thor being eighteen while Loki was only sixteen. They were so close they’d even shared a bedroom by choice for most of their childhood.

His search for Loki was broken when Heimdall elbowed him in the ribs. “Hey, were you listening?”

“Hmm, sorry?” he said, darting his gaze over to Heimdall and Sif before looking back at the door again.

“You want to go the movies after class? We’re all going.” Heimdall motioned to everyone else at the table before looking back at Thor.

“Can’t,” Thor said absentmindedly, letting his eyes wander around the lunchroom to search for a head of dark hair. “Practice.”

“Damn, Wednesday already?” Heimdall said.

“Can’t you shove Captain duties to someone else this week? What about Rogers, he’s your second in command on the team, right?” Sif complained.

“Yeah, man. Between rugby and Loki, you never have time for us,” Fandral said with a pout.

Thor scoffed, picking up a stack of napkins from the table to hurl them at Fandral. “That’s a lie. I still make time for all of you. We hung out two weeks ago at the arcade, remember?”

“True, but you brought Loki along, too,” Volstagg teased.

He tuned out again, allowing his friends to banter without him. Thor never minded Loki tagging along with his friend group. It wouldn’t have felt right if his brother wasn’t with him when they did everything together at home. Even though his friends teased them about it, none of them actually cared that Loki tagged along.

“Earth to Thor?”

Shaking his head, Thor glanced up to the inquisitive gazes of his five friends. “What?” he asked, attempting to go for casual as he leaned back against the wall.

“You’ve barely acknowledged our presence since we all sat down,” Sif pointed out.

“You’re attention span is God awful,” Fandral added.

“I’ll have you know, I have laser focus,” Thor quipped.

“ _That_ is the biggest pile of bullshit I’ve ever heard,” Loki said, materializing from nowhere. He gracefully sat down next to his brother and nudged him playfully with his shoulder.

‘“Worst Brother in the World Award’ goes to…” Thor replied pushing Loki’s shoulder away, but the smile on his face shattered the illusion of sarcasm he’d been going for. “How’d the art presentation go?” Thor asked Loki, his attention suddenly honed in on his brother.

Loki shrugged, going for nonchalant even though they both knew the project was worth 50% of his grade for the class. Thor had watched Loki work diligently at home, day and night, for six months on this project; he knew how important it was, how much frustration, anger, passion, and commitment Loki had put into it. Even with the air of nonchalance, he could see through Loki’s defenses; could see the slight raise of his shoulder and the tiniest quirk of his lips. Thor leaned in and gave his brother a side hug.

“Get off,” Loki muttered, pushing at his brother’s arm lightly to dislodge him.

Thor opened his mouth to say some other teasing comment, but whatever it was died on his lips when loud shouts from the opposite side of the table caught his attention. He scowled in disgust as he watched Volstagg swipe a piece pizza crust from Hogun’s plate and stuff it into his mouth before Hogun could snatch it back. Volstagg laughed in victory, spraying crumbs across the table.

“Disgusting,” Loki grimaced.

Thor couldn’t help but laugh at Loki’s reaction. He’d seen his brother do far worse than that when it came to food. When Loki glanced back at Thor, he smiled fondly at his younger brother.

 “Wipe that grin of your face, you great oaf.” Loki broke the staring contest they’d been having, and his eyes darted around the group to determine their reactions, but none of them were paying attention. They were too busy teasing Volstagg for eating not only his food but half of Hogun’s lunch, too.

“What?” Thor teased, prodding Loki in the side playfully. “Am I not allowed to be proud of my baby brother?”

“No,” Loki responded flatly. His seriousness lasted for a few seconds, long enough for the puppy dog look to settle onto Thor’s face, before he cracked the smallest smile. “Thank you, Brother.”  
Thor smiled triumphantly at Loki accepting his praise. “Celebrate tonight? The usual?”

His brother whipped his head around in surprise, and Thor caught the look of shock on Loki’s face. That look sent a wave of guilt through Thor that settled in the pit of his stomach. They hadn’t been able to partake in their little tradition in months. Sure, they hung out together all the time after school, but with Loki focused on his art project, and rugby taking up a majority of Thor’s time, they hadn’t had the time to indulge in their silly tradition. Even saying the words out loud made Thor want to smile because the tradition was so completely them. The sudden realization of how long it had been left him feeling determined. They both needed this little celebration, more than he’d realized until that very moment.

Loki paused for a second, analyzed Thor’s expression, and nodded, giving his brother a brief but soft smile. “As long as I get to pop the popcorn. You’re shit at it.” Loki had to shout the end of his sentence at Thor as the noise on the other side of the table grew to a crescendo. Fandral had joined in on the shouting, poking an accusing finger into Volstagg’s chest as he cried about the crumbs that had come out of Volstagg’s mouth and lodged themselves into his perfectly styled hair.  
Thor sputtered for a few seconds before shoving at Loki. “That’s a lie. I do the same thing you always do; put the packet in the microwave and press the popcorn button. How is it my fault the microwave lied and burnt all the popcorn?”

“Ah, you see, that’s your problem. Blaming the microwave for your incompetence. Only you could manage to burn popcorn using the specific setting for it.” Loki leant back against the wall casually, but his eyes surveyed the room to observe how many other students were watching their table.

Thor glanced at Loki from the side of his eye and saw his brother watching everyone else with a nervous look on his face. He was suddenly aware of just how close he was pressed against Loki. He instinctively shifted a few inches away, creating a visible gap between them to ease his brother’s worries of what other students would think of their closeness if they were watching.  

Volstagg and Hogun were still having a mini play-fight over stolen food, which was catching many students’ attention, but none seemed to be paying attention to Loki and Thor.

Throwing his hands up in defeat, Thor leaned against the wall next to his brother. “Fine. But the movie is my choice.”  
Loki cast Thor a look of betrayal. “I thought we were celebrating me here.”

Accepting he wasn’t going to win this battle either, the blond teenager sighed. “Alright, you win. But if I have to watch Les Misérables one more time…”  
Loki fake-glared at his brother. “How dare you take the name of Les Mis in vein. As punishment, that’s exactly what we’re watching tonight.”

“You’re impossible. I hate you.”

“Once again, total bullshit comes out of your mouth. You don’t hate me at all,” Loki said. He reached over, picking up Thor’s sandwich and split it in half for each of them to eat.

Thor took the pro-offered half sandwich and shook his head fondly. “You could go be annoying with the other Sophomores over there instead of bothering me and eating half my lunch.”

“You’d miss me too much and you know it,” Loki replied easily.

Loki was right. Thor did know it, but he’d rather run a hundred laps around the rugby field than admit that out loud. Instead, he thumped his brother on the back and made a show of attempting to steal the other half of his sandwich back.


	2. Chapter Two (Loki's POV)

Loki hated to admit he was pacing the room, but he was. The clock on the wall above the fireplace chimed and the sound startled Loki from his pacing. Half past six. He growled under his breath and resumed pacing again. He followed the same path; walking across the rug in front of the three seater couch, circling around the coffee table towards the loveseat, across the wooden floor in front of the stone fireplace and circling back onto the rug around the back of the couch to start the loop over again.

The soft sounds of the TV playing re-runs of House Hunters had shut off a half hour ago as standby mode had activated. The sunlight was fading, soaking the room in a weird half-light. Loki was too busy pacing to be bothered to turn any of the main lights on. He didn’t need the light to walk the path he was on; it was a nervous habit he’d replicated many times in the past. Besides, Thor usually arrived before sunset and turned the lights on for them.

With his parents out at some event--he didn’t care to ask what the events were anymore--he was home alone. Thor should have been home from rugby practice by now, and they should have been starting their celebratory movie night.

Yet Thor wasn’t home, and he wasn’t sure whether to be pissed off at his brother or to focus on the uncomfortably unfamiliar feeling bubbling in the pit of his stomach.

That unfamiliar feeling was making him think thoughts of his brother he wouldn’t usually dwell on as he paced the room. Thor, on the rugby field, slamming his muscular body against his teammates, the ripple of his muscles as he took the impact and continued to move across the field. The sweat drenched jersey clinging to his back, sweat-soaked hair sticking to the back of his neck. How the droplets of sweat would trail down his face and drop into the front of the jersey.

The image shifted as he circuited the living room again: Thor, tugging his jersey off in the locker room, his abs shining and his hair a tangled mess. He imagined Thor stripping off the rest of his sweaty clothes and standing under the spray of the shower, the water mixing with the sweat as it rolled over his chiseled chest and down his defined thighs to drip off his powerful calves. His hair would only be half-dried by the time he arrived home; his clean shirt clinging a little too tightly to the still damp abs underneath.

Loki stopped abruptly, realizing how long his thoughts had lingered on Thor’s body. Not wanting to unpack what else was lurking at the back of his mind when he thought of his brother playing rugby, he settled on being pissed off about his absence.

To ignore the thoughts running through his mind, Loki gave up pacing and stomped his way into the kitchen to pop his 4th bag of popcorn. The salty, buttery aroma danced around the large kitchen, overwhelming his senses and distracting him for a few moments. Staring at the microwave, he watched as the timer ticked down. 10, 9, 8…

A door banged open and a loud clatter echoed down the corridor as equipment was dropped to the floor. Loki caught movement from the side of his eye, knowing his brother had followed the heavenly smell of popcorn.

3, 2, 1. _Bing._ Loki opened the microwave and grabbed the bag by the top to avoid burning himself. Casually, he poured the contents of the bag out into the large overflowing bowl of already popped, cold popcorn. Loki picked a few pieces off the counter that had tumbled out of the bowl and ate them, one kernel at a time, staring off into the distance with a half-scowl on his face. He kept his gaze locked on the blank TV screen across the room, refusing to make eye contact with his brother.

“Loki?”

Loki gave a small shrug of his shoulder and took the empty bag to the trash.

“Why the silent treatment?” Thor asked.

Loki remained quiet as he picked up the bowl and walked back to the living room.

Thor followed hot on his heels when his eyes caught sight of the clock. 6:50pm. It suddenly clicked for Thor and he grabbed at Loki’s shoulder, twirling him around. “Is that why you’re mad?” he asked, motioning to the clock.

“Congratulations, Thor. You learned how to read a clock,” Loki said, shoving Thor’s hand off of his shoulder.

Loki made a move towards the couch when Thor stopped him again. “I wasn’t deliberately late, Loki. Coach made us run all the plays for the rest of the season so he could make adjustments to improve them.”

“If you’re too busy for tradition then kindly fuck off. Don’t make promises to me if you don’t intend on keeping them,” Loki snapped.

Instead of responding with anger, which is exactly what Loki was used to when he and Thor fought, Thor deflated and frowned. “I’m not too busy for our traditions. I really do want to celebrate the presentation of your art project being a success. I wouldn’t intentionally break my promises to you. I know how much this means to you; both the art project and our tradition.”

The complete 180 turn of Thor’s usual reactions threw Loki off balance. He was struck speechless for a moment, trying to figure out what was going on. He searched Thor’s face for any signs of anger, but found none.

“Fine,” Loki sighed. “You’re putting the movie on though. And if it’s not Les Mis, I’m never speaking to you again.” He pulled away from Thor and dropped down dramatically onto the couch.

“Liar,” Thor said, calling Loki out as he set the movie up.

Loki settled more comfortably into the cushions and set the bowl in between his legs to keep it stable. As Thor clicked onto the menu, Loki grabbed a handful of popcorn. He ate most of it, then decided to flick the last few pieces at the back of Thor’s head.

“Asshole,” Thor said, sticking his middle finger up at Loki while keeping his back turned to his brother.

“Well deserved,” was all Loki said back.

When the opening scene began to play on the screen, Thor quickly darted into the kitchen to grab them both soda. He walked over, placed the drinks onto the table in front of the couch, and sat down two spaces over from Loki.

A few seconds passed before Thor cleared his throat.

“Shush,” Loki muttered, his eyes on the screen while he grabbed another handful of popcorn to eat.

“Popcorn,” Thor said, reaching over to hit Loki on the arm.

“No. You don’t deserve it,” Loki said, continuing to watch.

“Loki. Popcorn.”

“Would you shut up?”

“Yes, when the popcorn is placed in the center spot like it’s supposed to be,” Thor said, raising his eyebrow.

“Fine,” Loki huffed, placing the bowl onto the center cushion.

“Thank you,” Thor said, his tone sincere.

Loki hummed and focused back on the movie. For once, Thor didn’t make a single complaint or sarcastic remark as Jean Valjean’s mournful face filled the TV screen. Maybe it was because his brother felt guilty for being late, or maybe it was his way of showing how proud he was of Loki for doing so well on his project. Either way, Loki was pleased to be enjoying the movie in peace. Thor even munched on his popcorn quietly when Loki’s favorite scenes and music were playing, though as always, when Enjolras made his rousing speech, Thor’s eyes glistened and his mouth wobbled slightly.

The credits began to roll and Thor stretched his back. “Are you in a better mood now you’ve seen Les Mis?” Thor asked.

Loki grabbed one of the cushions behind his back and hurled it at his brother’s head.

Thor caught it just before it hit him in the face. “Oh? Is that how it’s going to be?” Thor asked, raising his eyebrow.

“Well deserved,” Loki repeated his words from earlier.

“It’s on,” Thor challenged.

Before Loki could process what his brother had just said, he was being tackled to the floor. Instinctively, he shoved his hands out to knock Thor off of him. Thor grunted at the shove and twisted his body. He grabbed Loki’s wrist and tugged, sending him sprawling across the floor. Loki growled and launched himself at Thor.

They tumbled across the floor as they play-wrestled, barely dodging the table in the scrabble. Loki thought he was actually doing a decent job for once. He’d managed to pin Thor down several times for a couple seconds, but his brother always managed to knock him off balance and he’d end up back on the floor again.

Thor pounced, and next thing Loki knew, his shoulders were being held down firmly by his brother’s hands while he pressed the rest of his muscular weight down onto Loki’s stomach to hold him in place.

Thor grinned down at him, and Loki thrashed about trying to get his older brother off of him.

“Give up, Brother. You know you’ve lost. You can’t escape,” Thor teased. He shifted his weight slightly so he could bend down, looming over Loki.

Their faces hovered several inches apart and a smirk worked its way across Thor’s lips. A predatory gleam shone in his eyes and Loki felt a sudden stab of arousal careen down his body. He shifted uncomfortably under his brother and attempted to push back against Thor’s hold.

“Yes, yes, okay, I yield. Now get off me,” Loki said through his teeth.

Thor shifted slightly as if he was about to move, but instead he changed his mind at the last second and put pressure down on Loki’s arms again. “I’m not sure you actually meant it when you said you yield,” Thor teased.

“Thor!” Loki hissed, struggling harder against his brother’s weight pinning him down.

Leaning forward even closer so their noses almost bumped, Thor murmured, “Say it like you mean it and I’ll let you up.” He pulled his head back, increasing the space between their faces again so he could smirk down at Loki triumphantly, as if he’d already won.

Loki snarled at his brother. Without meaning to, his eyes darted down to Thor’s lips, mesmerized by their shape and movement. Confusion blurred his thoughts, and it was a long moment before the words his brother had said registered in his mind. Spoken softly as they were, the words came suggestive and challenging--as if he wanted Loki to make a move.

The sudden impulse to shift his head off the floor and lean up to Thor was so strong Loki actually felt himself closing the distance between them. The faint traces of stubble that dotted across Thor’s cheeks brushed against his forehead, tendrils of long blond hair tickling at his cheek as the distance shrunk to mere centimeters.

Loki darted his eyes up to meet Thor’s, and they stared at each other for a few seconds; the air filled with a heady tension Loki swore he could taste. Thor’s expression morphed into something unreadable for a moment, before a questioning look replaced it.

Loki broke the eye contact and let his gaze flicker back to his older brother’s lips again. There was a red tint to Thor’s lips, probably from biting at them during the exertion of their wrestling, and Loki licked his own lips hungrily. He bet his brother would taste like a mixture of butter, salt, and something distinctively Thor.

Loki let himself lean just a little bit closer towards Thor’s tempting mouth, the tension building in his body trailing down towards his groin. Their noses bumped together, and Loki felt the jolt from the physical contact like a splash of cold water across the face.

He jerked backward, his head bouncing off the wooden floor with a resounding _thwack_. “Shit,” he instinctively swore. The pain thrumming in his head was enough to clear the fog of clouding his judgment. What the fuck had just happened?

“Get the fuck off me,” Loki snapped, thrashing against a very dazed-looking Thor. The movement caught the older teenager off guard and he tumbled to the side.

Loki jumped to his feet, grabbed his phone, and darted from the room as fast as he could. He needed to get away from whatever the fuck that just was. The further away from Thor he could get, the more he’d be able to think clearly about what in the hell had just transpired between them, but more importantly, what had just caused Loki to suddenly be filled with the desire to have his brother kiss him senseless on the floor.

“Loki?” Thor’s strangled voice echoed after him as he fled. In any other circumstance, the confused and distressed tone Thor infused into his name would have stopped him then and there, but Loki ignored his brother’s desperate plea.

Instead, he raced up the stairs, his heart pounding in his ears and drowning out the sounds of whatever else Thor was saying. The adrenaline rush from being so close to Thor’s tantalizing lips burned red hot in his veins, and his chest was heaving, sucking in deep, panicky breaths as he ran to his room. He stumbled into the table in the hallway, hitting his hip against the corner in his rush. The pain instantly broke through the panicked haze and he swore under his breath. He reached down to his hip with the intent of rubbing over the already forming bruise, but instead the slight trace of fingertips over his hip bone made him suddenly excruciatingly aware of the hot, tingling sensation that zinged down his hard cock. The temptation and need for Thor’s touch on his aching cock made him swing around and almost take a step back towards his brother. All the emotions blurred together painfully in his head, causing him to feel dizzy with desire and confusion.

Finally, common sense won out over the need to get off and Loki stumbled the last few steps to his bedroom, slamming the door behind him so hard the doorframe rattled and threatened to splinter.

The rush of anger quickly faded and Loki collapsed onto the bed in exhaustion. As he lay there replaying the moment over and over in his head, he wished he could say he didn’t understand, that maybe the day’s events had gone to his head and he was just confused, but it wasn’t the truth.

The unfamiliar feeling which had bubbled in the pit of his stomach, and the thoughts lurking in his mind he hadn’t wanted to come to terms with, had just hit him so hard it felt like someone had punched him with a bulldozer instead of a fist.

He’d wanted Thor; wanted to kiss him, wanted to be touched by him, and wanted to be the center of Thor’s attention at all times. It wasn’t just a fleeting moment of weakness. He couldn’t just hide behind the excuse of being turned on by the close proximity of wrestling.

It was Thor. He’d wanted to kiss Thor. Had looked at Thor’s lips and imagined what they tasted like. He’d been aroused by Thor pinning him down with his body and not letting him up. And he had been the one to lean up and close the distance between them with the intention of making out with Thor. His own brother.

It felt like another blast of cold water to the face when Loki realized how fucked he was. Nothing about Thor’s reaction had said he wanted anything sexual from their encounter. He was just playing around with Loki like he always did, and was left confused and more than likely disgusted when Loki attempted to make a move on him.

‘Great,’ Loki thought to himself. ‘Once Thor fully comprehends that I just tried to kiss him, he’s never going to be the same around me.’

Loki picked up his alarm clock from the table by his bed and hurled it at the wall. It shattered with a loud clang, leaving a dent in the wall from the impact. Now he’d come to terms with it—that he desired his brother sexually--he knew he couldn’t be around Thor anymore in fear he would lose control completely next time. There was no way he could bear to face the anger, disgust, or hate Thor would throw at him tomorrow. There was nothing to do now except the one thing Loki had never wanted to do; detach himself from Thor and put as much distance between them as he possibly could without shattering the fragile sibling bond they had left.


	3. Chapter Three (Thor's POV)

When Thor woke up the next morning, Loki’s bedroom door was open and the room was empty. Thor frowned. It didn’t make sense; they always went to school together. Thor drove them to school every morning and home most days when he didn’t have practice. On the days he did have rugby, Loki would take the bus home.

Sighing, Thor knew Loki had woken up earlier than usual to catch the bus to avoid a confrontation with his older brother. He hated to admit he’d been anxious to drive in with Loki that morning, but he wanted to talk to his brother and figure out what had happened the night before.

They’d just been playing around like normal. Sure, he may have teased Loki more than usual, and sure, maybe it sounded slightly flirtatious when he thought back on it, but Thor hadn’t thought anything of it. He’d just been goading Loki to get a rise out of him. It seemed like Loki was playing along with the joke when he leaned up towards Thor. Honestly, he thought Loki was going to headbutt him to knock him off. But Thor couldn’t read Loki’s facial expressions, even with Loki mere centimeters away from him. The whole thing had happened so fast, and had left Thor confused and desperate to understand what the hell had just happened between them that caused his brother to flee as if the room were on fire.

Shoulders slumped in defeat, Thor decided he’d corner Loki at lunch and talk to him privately about everything. Hopefully, they’d be back to their brotherly antics by the evening.

~

Morning classes dragged by as Thor watched the clock anxiously. All he wanted was to see his brother. The urge to sort things out had been on the front of his mind during his first class of the morning. He’d attempted to bait his brother by sending him a series of texts. When his phone vibrated from his pocket, he yanked it out faster than he cared to admit to himself. His heart sank when he saw it wasn’t Loki’s name on his lockscreen. It was just Clint Barton asking about the essay they needed to write for their English class. Rolling his eyes, he swiped the message away for later and texted Loki again.

When the bell rang, Thor jogged to follow Loki’s usual path between classes in hopes of catching sight of his brother. He waited as long as he could but there was no hints of his brother’s dark hair anywhere in the corridors and Thor felt himself crumble in defeat.

By his second class, Thor had begun thinking he’d done something wrong and was formulating an epic apology. If he could just find his brother, he’d be able to apologize for upsetting him and they could go back to how they normally were by lunch. He bounced his leg as the last few minutes of class ticked by. As soon as the bell signaled the end of class, Thor took off at a run for the art classroom, wanting to catch Loki before he went into class so they could finally talk about whatever the hell was going on between them that was causing Loki to avoid him.

He peered into the classroom as he approached but it seemed Loki hadn’t arrived yet. All he needed to do was wait it out. Loki never missed art class; it was his greatest passion. He stationed himself outside of the room, and probably would have been able to snag Loki had Steve Rogers not come barreling around the corner and tackled him to the ground in an imitation of one of the tackles they’d practiced the night before on the field. Once they’d dusted themselves off, Steve had immediately launched into a spiel about some maneuvers he wanted to try out with Thor on the field before their next practice.

Just as Thor was about to excuse himself to find Loki, the bell rang, signifying he was now late to his next class. His eyes darted to the art room, but the teacher had already closed the door and he couldn’t see into the class to tell if his brother was in there or not. Sighing in defeat, he said goodbye to Steve and trudged to class, determined to speak to his brother at lunch.

Sitting in French class, the only thing he could think of was how much he missed Loki. There was an ache in the pit of his stomach that had burned all the way up to his heart.

The usual banter between them was missing and it left Thor feeling numb. There was still no snarky texts on his phone from his brother about how much he hated his Chemistry class. No sarcastic texts about Loki’s lab partner in biology, who he absolutely hated. No complaining about how much Loki hated his art, even though Thor knew his brother actually loved most of the art he created. Thor never knew how much Loki’s texts during school eased the burden of boring classes until suddenly there were no texts on his phone.

Thor glanced down at his phone for the fifth time in the last few minutes while the French teacher wrote a sentence on the board.

“Hey.” Thor turned around when Heimdall kicked him in the back of the shin.

“What?” Thor hissed, trying not to draw attention to them.

“What’s up with you? Not only have you not been paying attention, which is really unlike you, but you can’t keep your eyes off your phone. And, on top of that, you look like you just got dumped,” Heimdall whispered.

“What?” Thor asked in shock. “How do you notice all that from staring at my back?” Thor asked in disbelief.

“I see all,” Heimdall said, raising an eyebrow. When he saw the look of shock on Thor’s face, he shook his head and rolled his eyes. “I know you, Thor. You’re one of my closest friends, and I can tell something’s wrong.”

Thor sighed heavily, and scrubbed at his eyes to relieve the sudden burning that made him feel like he was going to cry. He cast his eyes forward, making sure the teacher wasn’t looking their way, before he turned back to Heimdall.

“Loki and I… I guess we had a fight last night? I’m not sure. He was acting weird when I got home. We watched a movie, and he seemed more like himself, so I thought we were cool again, but I guess not,” Thor said, casting his eyes back to his phone only to see there was no new messages.

“Why do you think that?”

Thor frowned, wondering if it was weird to tell Heimdall about their wrestling incident.

“Thor?” Heimdall prodded.

“I tackled him. After the movie ended, I mean. It was just harmless wrestling. We used to wrestle all the time when we were younger. He got all weird when I pinned him down; tried to headbutt me or something and then freaked out and just took off. He left before me this morning and hasn’t texted me all day,” Thor quietly admitted.

Heimdall let out a small huff, his eyes displaying deep thought as he pondered what Thor had just said. After a few moments of silence he asked, “Have you considered he just doesn’t like you being in his personal space?”

Thor scoffed, turning away from Heimdall in anger. Of course his friend didn’t understand. No one else outside of Thor and Loki really understood how deep their bond was as brothers. Personal space had never been something the brothers needed from the other. Their fights almost always revolved around pushing each other’s buttons; they knew the other’s weaknesses and how to go just a little too far past the line of teasing into something harsher. Whatever was going on now had nothing to do with personal space issues.

“I’m sorry, that was the wrong thing to say,” Heimdall spoke up again. He placed a hand on Thor’s shoulder in apology. The touch caused Thor to stiffen for a moment before he let out a deep breath and his shoulder sagged. “You miss your brother. There’s nothing wrong with that. But you two are close- closer than any other brothers I’ve ever met- so whatever is going on between you two, I’m sure you’ll figure it out soon.”

Thor grunted. He wasn’t sure he believed Heimdall, but it was better not to point that out.

“Besides, if you’re this lost without Loki, I guarantee Loki is feeling twice as lost without you.”

Thor whipped around to look at Heimdall in shock. “What makes you say that?” he asked skeptically.

Heimdall shrugged casually. “Intuition.”

“Excusez-moi, messieurs. Would you care to share your conversation with the class?” Madame Hill asked, her eyes locked on Thor and Heimdall.

“Non, Madame Hill. Je m'excuse,” Thor replied sheepishly.

“S'il vous plaît, prêtez attention,” Madame Hill said, before turning back to continue the lecture.

Heimdall shot Thor an apologetic look, but Thor shrugged it off. He was the top student in the class and Madame Hill’s favorite; he knew he wasn’t in any actual trouble.

The last twenty minutes of class ticked by, with Thor not paying any attention at all. He had no interest in the lesson at hand when each minute that passed brought him one minute closer to seeing Loki. The only thing on his mind was fixing things with his brother. He’d just copy Heimdall’s notes later on to catch up on the missed lesson.

When the lunch bell rang, Thor was up and out of his seat before any of the other students had even closed their books. He dashed to their usual lunch table, and watched the door for Loki’s presence.

Slowly, his other friends joined the table. Heimdall’s soft voice murmured something about leaving Thor alone and that the brothers had fought the night before. Nothing else was said on the matter.

Everyone else ate and conversed, while Thor just stared at the door. He ignored the food Heimdall pushed towards him, and pretended not to notice the looks of concern on his friends’ faces.

Five minutes passed. Then ten. Twenty. Thirty minutes passed and no sign of Loki. Thor had scanned each table a hundred times. Loki was nowhere to be seen. Thirty-five minutes into lunch, Thor gave up and picked up his phone to call Loki. The phone rang and rang. No answer. Forty minutes and Thor called Loki again, but his call was still ignored. The icy burn of betrayal broke Thor’s heart and the agonizing pain of loneliness settled in the pit of his stomach. He felt sick. Forty-five minutes; lunch was over. Loki never showed up.


	4. Chapter Four (Loki's POV)

Taking the bus home sucked. Loki slumped down further in his seat. The yearning chasm to be with Thor was growing wider every second. Loki was convinced it would swallow him whole. Classes all day had sucked, too. He’d barely had the will to show up to school, let alone pay attention in class. His fingers itched to snatch his phone up and text Thor. He missed his brother’s messages, the humor and witty responses Loki would get when he sent something snarky.

Overall, Loki missed his brother.

There was no way he could face him, though. He’d almost kissed Thor for fucks sake. The fact Thor hadn’t stormed into his room and disowned Loki as his brother was a miracle. He’d just stay clear of Thor for a while until things blew over. What would happen after that, Loki didn’t know. All he did know was that he was miserable without his brother.

Loki sighed, the air puffing against the dirty window pane and creating a halo of fog. He just knew he’d be the one groveling at Thor’s feet by the end of the week; out of the two of them, he was the more reasonable one. All he could do was hope Thor wasn’t so disgusted with him that he’d never want to be around his brother again.  
The bus arrived at his stop and Loki trudged off. Even though their house was only at the end of the cul-de-sac, Loki dragged his feet. Each step felt excruciating. Thor didn’t have practice today, so he would have driven home and arrived well before Loki. And with their parents still at work, it would just be Thor and Loki, alone in the house.

He’d either have to deal with the fight and fallout of his actions, or Thor wouldn’t want anything to do with him and he’d ignore Loki as if he wasn’t even there. Both options were earth-shatteringly painful and would leave him even more distanced from his brother than he already was.

Thoughts of Thor and his reaction clouded his mind, and before he knew it he was standing at the front door. Gulping a deep breath of air to steady himself, Loki slowly reached into his pocket to grab the key.

It didn’t matter though. Before Loki could register what was happening, the front door flung open, and Thor barreled out, straight at his brother. Loki winced, waiting for the punch he knew was coming and…

And he was taken completely off guard. Thor wrapped his arms around Loki’s shoulders tightly and tugged him towards his chest, encompassing him in a hug. “Loki,” Thor mumbled, resting his chin on top of Loki’s head and holding him close.

Loki froze, completely floored at what was happening. His arms remained limp at his sides as he tried desperately to process what was going on. Why was Thor hugging him? Why wasn’t he beating the shit out of him for trying to kiss him?

“Thor?” Loki whispered, afraid he’d shatter the moment.

“You ignored me all day. You weren’t at lunch. I was worried,” Thor muttered, tightening his grip on Loki.

“Worried?” Loki asked in utter confusion. “Aren’t you mad at me?”

Thor stumbled back a step but kept his arms wrapped around Loki’s shoulders. “You’re the one who’s mad at me, Loki. You just bolted last night after we wrestled, and then you spent all day ignoring me. What did I do to upset you, brother? Whatever it was, I’m sorry.”

Loki stood there, dumbfounded. Was Thor really so oblivious he hadn’t noticed what was really going on? How could he have missed the way Loki was looking at him so hungrily? Did he not see Loki staring, and almost drooling, over how tempting Thor’s lips were? Did he miss Loki licking his lips and darting his gaze down at his brother’s mouth? What other excuse could there possibly be for Loki leaning up and having their lips almost touch, only for the moment to be broken when their noses bumped together? Was he that oblivious to Loki’s hard-on and obvious signs of arousal? It actually hurt that Thor had missed it all; as if his brother didn’t know him well enough to read Loki’s reactions and piece together what was going on.

Looking at Thor’s face, Loki saw concern and confusion; no hints of anger or signs he knew of Loki’s feelings having morphed into something beyond brotherly love. Loki needed to come up with a lie to Thor’s question, and fast.

“You hurt me, when we were wrestling. My lower back was in a lot of pain and I lashed out at you to get away. This morning, I thought you’d be angry at me for lashing out at you, so I kept my distance,” Loki said, digging his fingernails into his palm and focusing on keeping his tone as even as possible.

As soon as the words were out of his mouth, Loki regretted them instantly. The utter look of devastation on Thor’s face was enough to rip Loki’s heart apart. What had he just done?  
“I- I hurt you?” Thor asked, his lip wobbling as if he were about to cry. “I was just trying to be playful. I never intended… I forget my strength sometimes. Loki, I never meant to hurt you. I’m so sorry.”

The sincerity in Thor’s words made Loki want to be sick. How could he do that to his brother? Now he’d gone and taken something that was his fault and thrown the blame at Thor. Not only that, but Thor hadn’t hurt him at all; he never did for that matter. Even when they were play-fighting, Thor always pulled his punches.

“I’m fine, Thor. I’m not in any pain now,” Loki said quickly.

Thor shook his head. “I still hurt you, though. I’m sorry, brother. Please forgive me.”

If Loki felt bad before, he felt even worse now; Thor begging for his forgiveness when it was he who should have been apologizing for desiring his brother. All he could do was nod numbly and mumble, “Yes, I forgive you.”

Thor stepped forward again and tugged Loki back into another hug. Loki felt wrong for lifting his arms up and hugging Thor back, but he couldn’t stop himself. The closeness, the physical contact, Thor’s arms wrapped around him tightly; Loki’s heart was racing. For just a moment, Loki allowed himself to melt into Thor’s embrace, relishing the feeling of his brother holding him close as if nothing else mattered in the world.

They remained that way for a few more glorious seconds before Thor pulled away. “You’re not going to ignore me anymore, are you?” Thor asked, pouting slightly.

Loki rolled his eyes but a small smile crossed his face. “I hate you,” he said.

“No you don’t,” Thor singsonged.

“Can we go inside now? Haven’t the neighbors seen enough of a show?” Loki shifted his backpack awkwardly from one shoulder to the other. Thor chuckled and stepped aside to allow Loki into the house.

Once Thor closed the door, he glanced back at Loki and gave him a small smile. “Want to watch some TV together?” he asked hopefully.

Loki winced. He knew the normal answer would be to say yes--they always hung out together after school--and he had missed Thor’s company more than he cared to admit. But a part of him was screaming to run away before he could make the mistake of coming onto Thor again.

Thor could see the wavering expression on Loki’s face and he frowned. “Come on. One episode of Game of Thrones,” Thor tempted him.

Sighing dramatically, Loki dropped his backpack down by the door. “Fine, only because you’re tempting me with our favorite show.”

The brothers soon found themselves back on the couch with the TV playing. “Hey, Loki?” Thor asked, breaking the comfortable silence between them.  
“Hmm?” Loki cocked his head to the side to glance over at Thor.

“Where were you today? At lunch? Did you even eat anything?”

Loki opened his mouth to reply, but he hesitated.

“Loki,” Thor said. His tone was reminiscent of the way Thor had called his name last night when he’d fled the room.

“I got a snack from the vending machine and ate in the art classroom,” Loki admitted. When Thor tried to speak, Loki cut him off. “I worked on a charcoal project.” He tilted his hands out to show Thor the faint black smudges across his palms from the charcoal he hadn’t been able to wash off.

“You still ignored my calls,” Thor pointed out.  
“I thought you were angry at me. And it’s a bit difficult to touch my phone when my hands are covered in charcoal,” Loki countered.

“Alright, alright,” Thor said, putting his hands up in surrender. “Just- don’t do that again.”

Loki opened his mouth, about to tease Thor for missing him, but it didn’t feel right. Instead he gave a curt nod to show he understood and to indicate he’d be in the cafeteria at lunch the next day.

Apparently Thor understood all the nod encompassed because he broke out into a massive grin.

The episode ended and the brothers agreed to catch up on homework before their parents arrived home from work.

Loki sat down at the desk in his room with a half-drawn still life art sketch on his desk. He’d tried to focus, he really had, but his eyes kept darting to the new dent in the wall. Looking at it brought him back to the moment when he was pinned down by Thor, Thor’s breath dancing across his face, the tempting shine on his brother’s lips that made Loki want to lean up and lick them, and how he wanted to ravish that mouth and thoroughly taste Thor.

If he closed his eyes, he could almost feel Thor’s weight pressing into him again. A soft groan fell from Loki’s lips and he felt the zing of arousal and desire burn down his body. He slipped his hand down, down, down, tracing all the parts of himself where Thor’s body had touched him last night. His fingers brushed over the bulge growing in his pants and he let out a stuttered breath.

He leaned back in the chair and pretended Thor was looming over him, pinning him down into the seat and bringing their bodies flush together. Slowly, he let his hand slide into his pants, ghosting over his now painfully hard cock. Hissing under his breath, he fumbled to unbutton his pants to relieve some of the pressure, his fingers struggling to tug on the zipper as his body felt hot and clammy from the sensations washing over him. When he got the button opened and the zipper down, he sighed in relief as he pulled his cock out. The hot and heavy weight in his hand caused him to suck in a breath through his clenched teeth

Squeezing his eyes shut, Loki slowly dragged his hand up and down his cock. He knew he had to be quiet. Thor’s room was next to his; their rooms shared a wall. It was one thing to be caught getting off by his brother, but now Loki knew how he felt about Thor, it would be entirely too erotic to have his brother walk in the room as he got off- especially if Thor’s name slipped past his lips when he came.

As quietly as possible, Loki grabbed the lotion from inside his desk drawer and squirted some into his hand. He winced at the sound of the lotion hitting his palm, which felt loud in the quiet room. He held his breath for a second, waiting to hear if Thor would make any obvious sounds or movements in the room next door, but everything remained still.

If he could do this quickly and quietly, Thor would never know what his brother had been up to and he’d be able to clean up before his parents got home for dinner. It would just have to be an accelerated orgasm, which didn’t seem so difficult to achieve when Loki had never felt so hard in his life.

Loki allowed himself to fall back into the illusion of Thor pinning him down into the desk chair. He imagined Thor reaching down slowly for his cock. He trailed his own hand down his chest, pretending it was his brother who was ghosting fingers over sensitive nipples towards his rock-hard dick.

When he wrapped his lotioned fingers around his cock, he felt a zing of pleasure shoot down his nerves. He clenched his teeth even harder. He imagined what it would feel like to have Thor touch him; how his brother’s fingers would feel wrapped around his dick. Loki wriggled in his seat, a gasp of pleasure slipping through his teeth, but he froze in panic when the chair squeaked with his movements. The breath of air he’d just taken got lodged in his throat, and he waited, heart pounding and his ears roaring, for his brother to come bursting into the room. Seconds ticked by slowly, and his door remained shut. After a full minute with no signs of Thor, Loki decided the coast was clear, and he began to move his hand over his dick once again.

With little time to spare, Loki soon set a fast pace, fisting his cock as quickly as he could while maintaining soft grunts and quiet gasps, muffled into the sleeve of his shirt. He couldn’t stop himself from snapping his hips up, pushing his cock into his hand and imagining he was fucking himself on Thor’s hand.

The thought of Thor jerking him in the same, frantic speed in order to get Loki off before their parents got home hit Loki so hard he almost came at the mere thought of it. He imagined being Thor’s dirty little secret. It sent a shiver down his spine and he found himself bucking up into his hand desperately. Oh, how he’d let Thor use him. He’d let Thor do whatever he wanted to him if it meant getting his brother's hands all over him.

Teeth grinding together painfully, Loki let out a choked-off whine as his hand moved faster over his cock. He was so close now. His whole body felt hot and sticky, sweat mixing with pre-come as it dripped down his thighs. The tingle of pleasure which had started in his belly had now slithered down into his cock, making him feel dizzy with heady arousal.

The image in his mind flickered to Thor grinning down at him as he watched his hand moving over Loki’s dick. The thought was so delicious and tempting, Loki felt a shot of pre-come splatter across his hand as it reached the head of his dick on his upward stroke. He let out a cry, covering his mouth with his sleeve to swallow the sound.

He increased his speed even more, twisting his hand on the downward stroke and groaning as the lotion squelched over his achingly hard cock, but even that wasn’t enough to bring about his orgasm. He just needed Thor’s touch. A simple caress of his brother’s fingers over his dick would be enough for him to come all over himself and the chair. His thoughts flickered back to Thor again and he pictured his brother getting down on his knees, his mouth hovering over his cock, drooling over the desire to suck Loki’s dick down until he was deep-throating him.

Eyes squeezed tightly shut as the pleasure rocked through his body, Loki’s breath stuttered through his clenched teeth in a whine, and he let his other hand slide down to trace a finger over his hole. So close now, he could feel the tug in his lower abdomen. Just a little bit-

“Thor? Loki? We’re home. Time for dinner. We stopped off at the Chinese down the street and got take-out,” Frigga’s voice called from the staircase.

“Yes, Mother,” Thor’s voiced called back. Loki heard a thump as Thor presumably jumped off his bed and the sound of a door opening and closing as Thor left his room and went downstairs.

“Fuck,” Loki hissed. Frigga was not a woman to be kept waiting. No way would he have time to get off and clean up before he was expected downstairs at the dinner table. Just the thought of his mother had already caused his erection to wilt.

The arousing images of Thor had melted away, leaving Loki with a heaving chest and an aching throb in his cock. Digging his fingers into the arms of the chair, Loki locked his jaw and ground his teeth together.

“Fuck,” he cried again. He’d been so close. Thirty seconds was all he’d needed. His fingers itched to press down against his bulge. It took all his willpower to button his pants back up again and ignore the base instinct to finish. He got out of the seat, kicked the small trash can by his desk in a fit of rage, and stormed into the bathroom to clean up.

Splashing his face with water, he took a few deep breaths to calm himself down. He stood, looking at himself in the mirror, trying to think of the least sexy things imaginable to rid himself of the last traces of his boner.

“Loki?” Frigga’s voice called again. ‘Uh-oh, warning tone,’ Loki noted. He dropped the washcloth back into the sink, and took one last look in the mirror. Thankfully, all traces of his previous activity were gone. Nodding to himself, he opened his bedroom door and quickly jogged down the stairs to join his family for dinner.


	5. Chapter Five (Thor's POV)

Thor eagerly grabbed a plate and filled it with as much food as he could fit on the dish. He was just adding fried rice to his mound of food when Loki waltzed into the kitchen.

“What took you so long?” Thor asked, sticking the spoon from the bowl into his mouth.

Loki made a face which Thor couldn’t quite decipher. Whatever look had crossed Loki’s face only lasted a couple seconds before it morphed into a fake-grimace.

“Gross, Thor. I don’t want your spit all over my food,” he said, indicating the spoon Thor had just eaten from.

Thor rolled his eyes playfully and tried to take a jab at Loki with the spoon. “You steal my food constantly, you little brat. What makes this any different?”

With a scoff, Loki grabbed the last plate from the stack. “When I steal your food it doesn’t usually have your spit on it, thank you very much.”

“Notice how you said ‘usually’, which means you don’t actually care if it’s been in my mouth or not,” Thor said triumphantly.

The victory was short-lived when Thor saw that same look cross Loki’s face that he couldn’t interpret. He raised an eyebrow and nudged Loki with his elbow. “You alright?” he asked, watching his little brother closely.

“Hm, what? Oh, yeah, I’m fine. Just gimme the damn spoon.”

Thor laughed, holding said spoon just out of reach. “Ask nicely and I just might give it to you,” he teased.

Loki instantly stiffened and took a very obvious step backwards.

A weird tension filled the air and Thor stood frozen, unsure of how to react. What the hell had that been? He’d never seen Loki react that way around him before. Yeah, sure, he’d seen Loki visibly freak out and step away from other people who got too close--he didn’t like people in his personal space--but he’d always been open with Thor; they were brothers.

Thor opened his mouth, about to say something--anything--when Frigga called from the dining room. “Are you boys going to join us for dinner? Or do we have to start eating without you?”

“Coming, Mother,” Loki replied, his tone surprisingly even.

Once again, Thor was taken off guard when Loki stepped forward swiftly, grabbed the spoon from his hand, and scooped some of the food from each container onto his plate. He then made a show of using the spoon Thor had eaten from to get the last spoonful of rice from the take-out container. Locking eyes with Thor, he stuck the spoonful into his mouth, proceeded to wink at his brother, and then flounced out of the kitchen and into the dining room.

Thor’s eyes darted back and forth from where Loki had just been standing to the doorway leading to the dining room. “Um, what?” Thor muttered to himself. Loki’s behavior was utterly confusing and Thor had no idea how to make sense of everything relating to his brother as of late. Sighing, he decided he’d try and decipher it all later when he had time to process what had just transpired.

“Ah, there you are,” Odin said when Thor walked into the room. He motioned for Thor to take his seat next to Loki at the table. Thor hesitated for a second before following his father’s orders and sitting down.

“Finally,” Loki muttered dramatically, grabbing his fork and stabbing a piece of chicken. He popped the food into his mouth and licked his lips appreciatively.

It was tradition in their household to wait to eat until everyone was sat down at the dinner table with their food. And while it was normal for Loki to be a touch dramatic when it came to anything and everything, Thor wasn’t sure how to read first the winking and now the licking of his lips. It all left him feeling confused and out of sorts.

Thor was broken from his musing when his father called his name. “Sorry, Father, what was that?” he asked, dragging his eyes away from Loki to look at Odin.

“I asked how practice was yesterday? By the time we got home last night, you boys were both in your rooms.”

“Oh. Practice was good. Coach had us run all the plays for the rest of the season so he could make adjustments to improve the way we play. He wants us to go undefeated, so he’s pushing us harder this year,” Thor explained.

“That’s great news. How’s that teammate of yours? Rogers?” Odin asked.

“Steve Rogers? He’s doing much better. Broke his collarbone playing last season but he’s been training and is doing a lot better now. He’s a shoo-in for the captain position on the team next year after I graduate.”

“Better teach him well then before you leave so the team can continue strong without your leadership,” his father said.

Thor nodded and smiled proudly, glad his father had taken notice of his leadership qualities.  
“What about you, Loki? You never told us how that presentation for your watercolor project went in art yesterday,” Odin asked, turning his attention to his younger son.

Loki shrugged. “It went fine. My teacher said my technique has improved and I did a good job of capturing the diverse colors of my subject in the piece.”

“That’s just wonderful,” Odin said with a smile.

“We’re very proud of you, Loki,” Frigga added warmly.

Thor watched as Loki ducked his head down at the praise. ‘At least that part of Loki’s behavior hadn’t suddenly changed’, Thor noted. Accepting compliments always seemed to make Loki shy, as if he wasn’t prepared to accept the fact he was actually a great artist.

“What is your next art project centered around?” their father prompted.

Loki quickly twirled his fork into the noodles on his plate to postpone answering. He chewed slowly, hoping to avoid answering, but their parents were still looking at him expectantly.

Finally succumbing, Loki answered, “I’m currently working on two projects. One’s a charcoal piece I’m creating in class based on a scenic view, and the other is a still life sketch that I can work on at home.”

“That sounds wonderful. Will we get to see any of these projects you’re so diligently working on?” Frigga asked.

Once again, Loki shifted around uncomfortably, as if thrown off by all the attention being directed at him. “There’ll be an art show at the end of the year where you can see everyone’s art from the class.”

“Fantastic. Let us know the date of this art show and we’ll make plans to be there to see your work,” Odin said.

Regardless of Loki’s odd behavior lately, he could still read his brother well enough to know what he needed to do to set Loki at ease after his parents had asked so many questions about his artwork.

“Talking of things to see, is anyone coming to the rugby game tomorrow night? We’re playing against Jotunheim High.”

“Ah yes, the sworn rival of our school,” Loki said while flourishing his hands and rolling his eyes. Despite the eyeroll, Loki’s shoulders sagged in relief at the change in topic.

Thor grinned proudly; a giddy feeling fluttering in his stomach when he saw Loki’s small relieved smile directed at him.

“If all goes well at the office, we should be able to make it to watch your game,” Odin said.

Thor nodded and carefully nudged Loki with his elbow. Loki whipped around, his eyes narrowed in warning at being touched by someone. Thor put his hands up in surrender and offered his brother a small, placating smile.

“I just wanted to know if you’d be coming to the game, too?” Thor asked softly.

Loki’s eyes darted over to their parents, who suddenly seemed focused on a conversation between themselves about some drama that had happened earlier that day at the office.

Thor watched as his brother’s gaze flickered across the table before settling back on him again. Reading his brother’s emotions usually wasn’t a challenge for him, but over the last two days Thor wasn’t sure what was going on behind those blue eyes.

Loki opened his mouth, paused, licked his lips, and finally gave a single nod. “I’ll be there,” he said, his tone matching Thor’s.

“Thank you, brother.”

Scoffing, Loki backed up-- the action making it jarringly clear how close they had suddenly been leaning into each other-- and crossed his arms. “Stop being so sentimental, you big oaf.” A small smile played across Loki’s lips and Thor felt himself fully relax. This was the Loki he was used to.

“I wasn’t being sentimental,” Thor defended, mock gasping.

With a chuckle, Loki turned back to the table and spun his fork into his noodles. “Easier to let sentiment burn.”

This time it was Thor who scoffed. “Says the one who puts their emotions into their art.”

“Art is nothing without emotion, you idiot,” Loki grumbled, his words muffled around his mouthful of noodles.

“Don’t talk with your mouth full, Loki, it’s not nice,” Thor teased.

Loki reached out and punched Thor in the stomach in retaliation.

“You bastard.”

“Boys. Better table manners, please,” Frigga said, interrupting Thor mid-swing.

“Yes, Mother,” they both said.

Sighing, Thor stabbed a piece of chicken; bitter at having lost this round. Out of the corner of his eye he could see the smirk of victory on Loki’s face. He scowled. “Stop gloating.” He jabbed Loki in the ribs again with the handle of his fork.

The smirk on Loki’s face reached his eyes, and Thor couldn’t help grinning right back. Seeing that spark in his brother’s eyes took away the last traces of worry Thor had been feeling over Loki’s strange behavior. If only he’d known then that their little ounce of normality wouldn’t last until the rugby game the following night.


	6. Chapter Six (Loki's POV)

“Happy Friday, Loki,” Tony Stark said as he plopped himself down on the lab bench next to Loki.

Loki sighed heavily, dropping his head down onto the table and covering his eyes. “Why are you always so peppy at eight in the morning?”

“I love biology lab, I don’t need as much sleep as most people do, it’s Friday. And I’m not peppy, Odinson. You’re just moody.”

Uncrossing his arms, Loki turned his head and scowled in Tony’s direction before returning his head on top of his arms once more. “I hate you.”

“Yes, yes, I know. You’ve mentioned that every day of class.”  
“Then why don’t you take a fucking hint?”

“We’re assigned lab partners. Not my fault we have labs in class every Friday. Suck it up. At least this week is an exciting experiment.”

Loki grumbled, trying to pretend Tony would just disappear. “You said that last week about the card experiment.”

Tony scoffed. “You mean the experiment to showcase how genes are inherited from one generation to the next.”

With a noncommittal hum, Loki quickly darted his hand down to grab his phone from his jeans pocket and slid it under his arms so only he could see it. If he was to pretend that things were back to normal with Thor, then he needed to act more like his usual self.

_If I have to hear one more comment from Stark about how fucking fantastic last weeks ‘gene’ experiment was I’m going to kill someone._

He tapped his fingers against the lab table.

“Stop that, it’s annoying.”  
“Zip it, Stark. Class hasn’t started yet, so I’m not distracting you from anything important.”

“You’re being a general distraction. I can’t think straight.”  
“That could be because you’re gay as fuck.”

“Yeah, and you love it,” Tony said, blowing Loki a kiss.

“In your dreams, Stark.”

“Oh, but I do dream about having you, Loki. Every night. You on your knees for me.” Tony puckered his lips and made kissy noises at him.

“Fuck off.” Loki rolled his eyes and reached out with a hand to shove at Tony’s arm.

Tony threw his head back and laughed. “Alright, I take it back. You aren’t as moody today as you usually are.”

“I’m going to stab you with my pencil,” Loki threatened.

Tony rolled his eyes dramatically. “Go back to texting.” Loki’s head whipped up and Tony stuck his tongue out. “You’re not as smooth at hiding it as you think you are.”

Loki opened his mouth to snap something snarky at Tony, but his phone vibrated in his hand and his heart kicked up a couple notches. Thor’s name flashed across the screen and he fumbled to unlock the phone to see what his brother had said. His finger hovered over the texting app, and he felt the sudden urge to hurl his phone at the wall as the bubbly feeling in his stomach turned into a tight coil of nerves.

He stared down at the little, red notification until it blurred into a blip rather than a clear number. When he blinked, the number came back into focus and Loki scoffed at himself. Why was he feeling so nervous about a simple text from Thor? It wasn’t as if his brother could’ve discerned his incesteous feelings from his text message about Stark. There was nothing to panic about.

He forced himself to click into the app. Thor’s text message popped into view and Loki couldn’t stop the grin that creeped across his face.

_Wasn’t that the experiment where you just traded pieces of paper with people in class? If that’s his idea of a good time, I’d hate to imagine what he’d be like in bed._

Loki snorted and muffled his laugh into his arms.

“What’s so funny, Odinson?”

“Your face.”

“Wow. Is that really all you got? That must have been one fantastic text to throw you off your game that badly. Who’re you texting? Or are you sexting?” Tony said, raising his eyebrows suggestively.

“Douchebag,” Loki muttered, turning his attention back to his phone.

_Oh, please stop. He’s been disgustingly flirtatious all morning and if I have to picture Stark having sex for one more second I’ll rip my own eyes out._

When his phone buzzed again, Loki could feel his brother’s smirk shining through the words on the screen. He felt himself smile; a feat only Thor could make him do at such an early hour.

_Oh, but Brother Dear, Stark is just your type. You two would make such a snarky little pair. In fact, second thought, no one could handle that much attitude if you two were together. Abort mission. I ban you from dating Stark._

Loki glanced up from his phone just as the teacher walked in. He schooled his expression and casually shifted his phone more under his arm to hide it. “Good morning class. Your lab assignment for the day is up on my desk. Grab the packet and a basket of materials. Also, if you are squeamish about blood, please come speak to me in the next few minutes and I will set you up with an alternate assignment.”

“Finally! Time to get our hands dirty.” Tony grinned, jumping up from his seat with a massive grin. “I’ll get us both a packet and the basket for the experiment.”

Loki darted his eyes back and forth nervously. “Why the generosity?”

Tony raised one eyebrow in a questioning look. “You’re actually being a decent human being this morning instead of your usual self.”

“What does that mean?”  
Tony made a vague gesture at Loki and shrugged before jogging off to the front of the room, bumping hips with James Rhodes and throwing an arm around his friend’s shoulder.

Choosing to ignore Tony’s comment, Loki slipped his phone back into the hidden space between his arms on the lab table and typed one final message to Thor before class began.

_You’re so right. He is my type. I’m asking him on a date right now. Do you think he’s more of a Italian or a French cuisine type?_

He snickered to himself and pushed his phone back up his sleeve to await Thor’s reply. Even with class less than a minute from starting, Loki knew his brother well enough that he’d get a response for being snarky.

As if on cue, his phone buzzed against his forearm. Hooking the phone back out, he opened his texts; his finger trembling slightly over what Thor’s reaction might be.

_Don’t you dare. I will march over to your class right now if I have to. No one like Stark gets to take my brother away from me._

Loki felt a zing of arousal shoot up his spine at the mere thought of Thor being possessive of him. He felt his fingers trembling for a completely different reason than they had been a mere moment ago. He considered darting to the bathroom for a moment to calm down-- just a second to splash his face with water and flush away the mental image of Thor storming into the room and slamming him against a wall and kissing him as deeply as he possibly could to show the entire class who he belonged to-- but Tony plopped back down in his seat, pushing a basket full of some kind of testing kit in his direction.

Loki cleared his throat and shook his head forcefully to dispel the image of Thor claiming him in front of everyone. Tony turned and darted his eyes up and down Loki’s body before raising his eyebrows suggestively.

“Piss off, Stark.”

Tony put his hands up in surrender and slid a packet across the lab desk towards him. “Wanna get started on the experiment? The sooner we start, the sooner we finish and we can kick back and watch everyone else struggle with it.”

Loki nodded in compromise and picked up the packet.

**Blood Testing Experiment** was written across the top of the page with an explanation of the different blood types and what they meant, along with how blood types are inherited from the parents.

Loki hummed as he flicked through the pages. “This might actually be an interesting experiment for once,” he muttered as his eyes glanced over the different blood types.

“What makes you say that?” Tony asked, picking up a blood testing strip and a small pin from the basket.

Loki flipped back to the chart in the packet that showed the parent genes for blood types and all the possible combinations and gestured towards it. “I know for a fact that Thor’s blood type is AB+, which is the same as our Father’s. And I heard my Mother say she was A+.”

“Did that just come up in casual conversation at the dinner table or something?” Tony asked, finding the instructions for the experiment and placing his pencil underneath step one so he could focus on it.

“No, of course not. When he was twelve, Thor was attempting to cook and accidentally cut himself with a knife. There was blood everywhere and the doctors wanted to give him a transfusion to make up for the blood loss. I heard them asking my parents their blood types. My Mother said she was A+, but it turned out Thor and my Father were the same type so to make it easier he donated blood to Thor,” Loki explained.  
“Sounds a shade dramatic if you ask me. You didn’t find out your blood type that day?”

Loki shook his head, picking up the vials of type A and type B antibodies. “Everyone was too focused on Thor. I didn’t need to know it at the time so it didn’t matter. But now, looking at this chart, I can hypothesize I’ll either be AB+ or A+.”

A small smile spread across Tony’s face and he dipped his head in a bow. “Color me impressed for the educated guess and the use of correct terminology.”

Loki chuckled, picking up one of the glass slides. “Can we get on with the experiment, Stark?”

“Give me your finger and I’ll prick it with the needle,” Tony said, raising an eyebrow in a challenge.

“Thanks, but no thanks. I don’t trust you.”  
“Ouch, hurtful.” Tony pouted, but handed over the needle to Loki.

Carefully, Loki twirled the needle in his fingers, allowing the smooth, cold metal to ground him. Lining up the point of the needle with the pad of his fingertip, he pressed the tip down. He watched in awe as the needle slid past the layers of skin on his fingertip and lit a trail of nerve endings as it did, sending quick flashes of pain down his spine. He winced slightly and pulled the metal away. “Am I good?”

“The packet says put some pressure on either side of the prick. If it wells up with a drop of blood then you’re good.”

Loki followed Tony’s instructions and felt a gleeful spark when a bead of blood appeared at the end of his finger. There was a low murmur as Tony said something but it was drowned out as he stared at his finger in wonder.

Tony nudged him and his concentration was finally broken. “Hand me the needle, dumbass. And stop staring at your finger like that. It makes me feel like you’re going to faint or something.”

Loki scoffed and passed the needle over to Tony, who used an alcohol wipe to clean it off before pricking himself.

Darting his eyes down to the packet for confirmation, he then reached out and grabbed the glass slide Tony had pushed across the desk towards him. As per the instructions, he placed 3 drops of blood from his finger onto the slide. He picked up the anti-A antibody vial and glanced over at Tony. “What’s your hypothesis for your blood type?”

“B-.”

“That sounded pretty confident.”

“Not confident, just hopeful. My Father is AB-. Mother is B-. It'd be kind of nice to be B- like my mother. That, and if my blood is AB- it would probably be the only thing my Father and I have in common.”

Loki winced and offered a slide to Tony in a silent show of understanding. He waited until Tony had prepared his slide before reading the next step out loud.

“Place a single drop of Anti-A antibody, Anti-B antibody, and Anti-D antibody to each of the blood drops on the slide. Then use a glass stirring rod to mix the blood with the Antibody solution. Allow the mixture to sit for two minutes and then observe the Antibody-Antigen reaction. This is known as an agglutination reaction and will create clumps on the slide.”

“Well, that doesn’t sound too difficult. I’m guessing this experiment is good for demonstrating how the agglutination process works. Hand me one of the Antibody vials, will you?” Tony asked.

Loki hummed and handed over the Anti-A, applying a drop of Anti-B to his own slide. He watched as the single drop slowly merged with his blood, causing the blood to take on a yellow hue. He quickly mixed the two together before picking up the Anti-D and handing the Anti-B to Tony, who’s hand was already waiting to make the switch. Loki hated to admit it but he and Tony made a good team when it came to experimental work. They fell into a rhythm that felt effortless; neither one needing to voice their movements as they always predicted what the other was just about to do.

Shaking his head, Loki focused back on the task at hand. Once he’d mixed the Anti-D and Anti-A with his blood, he glanced over to Tony to see he was already setting a timer on his phone. “Two minutes, yeah?” Tony asked, already typing the number into his phone.

“Yes. We need to watch for-”

“For clumping,” Tony finished his sentence.

Loki nodded, picking up an alcohol wipe from the basket to clean off the three glass rods he’d used for mixing the solutions on the slide. “Is there questions we need to answer at the end of the experiment?”

He heard a rustle of paper as Tony flicked through the packet. “Yeah, five questions. All short answer. Damn. Just when I thought we’d get away with minimal effort.”

As Tony complained about the questions, Loki flicked to the page in the packet with pictures of what each blood type would look like on the slides after the reaction was complete. With a glance at Tony’s phone, he saw there was only a minute left on the timer. Trying to match up his slide to the pictures was too hard when it hadn’t finished reacting and Loki gave up his attempt at figuring it out early with a sigh.

“It’s only 40 more seconds,” Tony pointed out.

“I thought you wanted this experiment done as fast as possible?”

“Oh, I do. Got any answers for question number one?”  
“Haven’t been looking,” Loki mumbled distractedly as he picked up his slide to examine it more closely.

“You suck.”

Loki ignored him and frowned down at the slide. That didn’t make any sense…

Tony’s timer went off, the vibrations loud against the lab desk.

Loki glanced down at the packet, then back at his slide. “What?” he mumbled to himself.

Deciding he needed his eyes tested for glasses, he decided to place the slide down on the page next to the images to perfectly match his blood to the correct type. He placed the slide underneath the image of A+. It didn’t match. He pushed the slide across the page and lined it up to the image of AB+. No match.

He moved the slide down the page, checking each blood type against his own to find the match. There it was at the bottom of the page. O+.

It didn’t make any sense. He was 100% positive…

He quickly pulled his phone out. There was only one person who could reassure him that he hadn’t gone crazy. Thor.

“Hey, what’s wrong? You’ve gone white.”

“It doesn’t match,” Loki muttered as his fingers flew across the keys.

_Your blood type is AB+, right? Like Fathers? And Mother is A+?_

Thor’s reply was almost instantaneous.

_Why are you asking about our blood types?_

Loki growled under his breath.

_Answer the damn question._

_Alright, calm down. Yes, I’m sure I’m AB+ like Father and Mother is A+. Are you going to tell me what this is about now?_

Loki dropped his phone back onto the table, ignoring Thor’s plea for answers.

Tony had left his own slide abandoned on the table and picked up his glass slide, examining it with a curious look on his face. He turned and raised his eyebrow at Loki expectantly.

“It doesn’t make any sense. I should either be AB like my brother or A+ like my mother. It’s not possible.”  
Tony frowned for a second in concentration. He flicked back to the chart of parent blood genes. “What if your Mother is AO?”

Loki glanced at the chart over Tony’s shoulder and shook his head. “It wouldn’t matter. My father is AB, and the O gene is recessive. For me to be O, both of them would have to carry a recessive O to pass on to me. It’s just not possible.”

Silence lapsed between them for a second before Tony glanced up at the clock on the wall. “Okay, here’s what we’re going to do. We’ve still got time before class is over since we work more efficiently than everyone else. Let’s assume the slide was contaminated. You do the experiment over again, and I’ll answer the questions at the back of the packet.”

Loki opened his mouth to throw a witty retort at Tony but nothing came out. “What-what about you?”

“I’m all good. I’m B- just like my mom.” Tony pushed his slide across the desk towards Loki so he could see. It was a perfect match to the B- sample picture in the packet, just as Tony had said.

“Alright. Give me your packet and I’ll write the answers out for both of us. Pick a clean slide and do the experiment again. I’m sure it was just a contamination or error in the samples. We’ll get the right results this time around.”

Taking a deep breath and schooling his features, Loki nodded and picked up another slide. He grabbed the needle and wiped it down with another alcohol wipe just be sure it was clean. After a moment's hesitation, he held up a different finger and pricked it. He waited until a drop of blood beaded on the tip of his finger before replacing the needle in his hand with the slide. For the second time, he squeezed three blood drops onto the slide.

Turning his head, he caught sight of Tony’s hand stretched towards him with the three bottles of Anti-sera.

“Thanks, Tony.”

The tone of Loki’s voice made Tony look up from the paper he was currently scribbling answers on. He gave Loki a nod and a small smile before going back to work.

Plucking the vials from Tony’s hand, he popped the cap off the Anti-A antibody and was about to squeeze a drop onto the slide but his hand began to shake.

‘Stupid. So stupid. It was probably just a false reading. You have nothing to worry about,’ Loki thought to himself. He took a deep breath to steady himself and went about adding drops of the antisera to the blood. He grabbed three separate glass rods and mixed the solutions together again, this time more slowly and carefully to ensure everything merged together smoothly. Grabbing his own phone out, he set a timer for two minutes. The nerves kicked in after only six seconds and he began to tap his fingers against the tabletop to distract himself.

“Stop it. That isn’t going to help,” Tony mumbled, his eyes never leaving the packet in front of him.

“Shut up, Stark,” Loki said, but this time there was no malice behind the words. He did, however, still his fingers.

“Here, why don’t you quickly scan over these answers I have so far so I can copy my answers over to your packet. I’ve only got one question left.”

Loki pulled Tony’s packet closer and scanned his answers carefully; reading over each answer twice to ensure it was correct. “This is the only piece that doesn’t sound right,” he said, tapping one section on the third question.

Whatever Tony said next was drowned out as the timer on Loki’s phone went off. Two minutes were up. It was now or never. Instead of looking down at the slide though, he found himself squeezing his eyes shut out of fear. Fear of the unknown.

‘Stop it, Odinson. You’re being ridiculous. It’s going to be A+ just like Mother. Then you can move on and finish up with this stupid experiment,’ he thought to himself.

It took all his internal strength to open his eyes and look down at the slide glaring up at him. He stared down at the little glass slide and felt his heart stop. It was identical to the previous attempt. Nothing had changed. There were no errors. No contaminations.

With shaky hands, he picked up the previous slide and placed it side by side to the second attempt. He cast his eyes back and forth between the two slides. Identical.

His eyes flickered over to his packet, sat on the table halfway between him and Tony. It was still on the same page he’d left it on; the images of what each blood type would look like shining up at him. He pushed the slides towards the page and lined them up with the O+ image. A perfect match. Both slides clearly showed his blood type was O+. Not like this Mothers. Not like his Brothers or his Father's. Not like any of them. Completely different and entirely impossible.

Genetics didn’t work that way. He physically couldn’t have O+ blood type.

Unless…

No. It couldn’t be. Could it? It wasn’t possible. His parents would have told him if that was the case… right? They’d never even hinted at the idea.

He could feel his breathing coming out in harsh pants. His heart was racing so fast he felt like he might have a premature heart attack and die right here in the classroom. He could feel beads of sweat- was it really just sweat or were his eyes stinging with tears- trickling down his cheeks and onto his jaw. His entire body felt like it was vibrating. He could see how much his hands were trembling against the black surface of the lab desk. He felt lightheaded and nauseous, like if he were to open his mouth and say anything his breakfast would come back up all over the table. The room felt like it was spinning and he was tumbling down, down, down.

On an impulse, he grabbed the two slides and shoved them into the open pocket of his backpack for further inspection, but mostly as proof that something was very wrong here and he had no idea what it meant. He then picked up the Blood Testing Experiment packet, tore out the page of images of each blood type, and shoved it into his jacket pocket before dropping the rest of the packet back down onto the tabletop.

His vision began to waver; blurring and distorting the world around him. He wasn’t sure if he was on the verge of hysterically crying or if he was seconds away from having a fit and passing out.  
“Loki?” Tony asked, his voice gentle with a hint of concern.

Loki didn’t say a word. He snatched his backpack off the ground, seething in rage, embarrassment, and some new emotion burning in his chest that he couldn’t ever remember feeling before. Without another look back at his lab partner, he slung the bag over his arm and fled the room. He ignored the calls of Tony and the teacher to “get back here at once.”

Instead, he bolted; out of the classroom, down the winding hallway, across the front entrance, down the steps of the school, and onto the road that led into the heart of town.


	7. Chapter Seven (Loki's POV)

Loki spent hours wandering the town, trying to gather his thoughts and make sense of everything. Texts from Thor kept pouring in but Loki ignored them. When lunch time came, a flurry of texts from Thor hit his phone asking where he was and why he hadn’t shown up at lunch like they had agreed earlier that morning. When his phone vibrated once again, Loki was tempted to switch it off until he saw who it was from.

_Message from Tony Stark: I’m sorry man. Your brother forced me to tell him what happened earlier. I told him about the blood test results and how you bolted from class. He’s desperate to find you._

“Fuck you, Stark,” Loki growled to himself, slamming his finger on the delete button and turning his phone off. He collapsed onto a bench that bordered the outside of the old park which had been abandoned a couple years back when the town built a newer one on the nicer side of town.

“You look like you needa drink,” someone said, appearing to the right of Loki’s vision.

“You got something?” Loki asked, cocking his head in the direction of the voice. “Wait a second, do I know you?” He looked the man up and down; noting his long brunet hair tied up in a bun on his head, his muscular arms, his bright blue eyes, and his tattoo sleeve on his right arm starting at his wrist and disappearing up the sleeve of his tshirt towards his shoulder.

The man chuckled and gestured to the bench. Loki gave a curt nod and shuffled over slightly to allow the man to sit next to him. The man offered him a flask and Loki plucked it from him, taking a swing and wincing from the burn.

“Name’s Bucky. Your Thor’s brother, right?”

“Jesus fuck. I’m so sick of being ‘Thor’s little brother’.”

Bucky put his hands up in surrender. “Sorry. I can see that’s a touchy subject for ya. I’m a Senior, too.”

“You go to our school?”

Bucky nodded.

“Then why are you out here on your own?”

“Skipped half of math. And I pretty much always ditch outta lunch. Much easier to drink and smoke a cig out here.”

Loki nodded his agreement and took another gulp from the flask.  
“What’s a pretty boy like you doin’ out here lookin’ like you need a whole bottle of whiskey instead of just a flask?”

Gritting his teeth, Loki threw down one last mouthful of the strong whiskey before passing the flask back to Bucky. “Just found out from a fucking biology experiment that I’m adopted.”

“No shit. How’d you figure?”

Reaching into his bag, he pulled out the blood test slides and threw it into Bucky’s lap. “Double checked it, too. My blood is O+. Everyone in my family is confirmed AB+ and A+, which means it’s physically impossible for me to have that blood type. Unless I’m adopted.”

“And no one has told ya yet?”

“Nope.”

“Woah. That’s some serious shit.” Bucky handed the flask back to Loki and placed the slides and paper back into Loki’s bag. “Trust me, you need it more than I do.”

Without a word, Loki took the proffered flask and took another sip.

“You wanna smoke?” Bucky asked, popping open the cigarette packet and offering one to Loki.

Loki shrugged. “Never tried it before.”

With a chuckle, Bucky lit up and took a drag. “You can share mine, Pretty Boy.”

Instead of correcting him on the annoying nickname, Loki just plucked the cigarette out of Bucky’s hand and took a drag. He barely managed a couple seconds before he was pulling back, coughing and sputtering.

Bucky laughed again, taking it back from Loki. “Takes a while to get used’ta it, Kid.”

Loki grimaced, clearing his throat and taking a swig of whiskey to chase the acrid taste away. “Don’t call me Kid.”

“You prefer Pretty Boy?” Bucky asked, raising an eyebrow as he blew a puff of smoke up into the air above them.

“I prefer nothing at all.”

“Alright, whatever you say.” Bucky offered Loki the cigarette again. “Take it slow this time, yeah?”

After his second attempt, he still found himself coughing, but it wasn’t as bad as the first time. “Thanks,” he mumbled after he’d handed both items back to Bucky.

Bucky shrugged casually. “Like I said, looked like you needed it.”

The two lapsed into silence, occasionally passing the alcohol and cigarette to each other until the flask was empty and only the cigarette butt remained.

“You heading back to school?” Bucky asked, standing up from the bench and crushing the butt under his shoe.

Loki shook his head, his vision blurring slightly. “Nah, think I’m gunna...” He frowned when he couldn’t find the rest of his sentence.

Bucky took one look at Loki and sat back down on the bench.

“Whaddya doin’?” Loki slurred.

“Stayin’ with ya till you sober up, Pretty Boy. Don’t really want anyone takin’ advantage of ya is all.”

With a sigh, Loki dropped his head back against the edge of the bench. They lapsed into silence again before Loki tipped his head towards Bucky. “I’m gunna…” He hiccupped and laughed before starting his sentence again. “I’m gunna run away.”

Bucky suddenly snapped his head and looked up at Loki cautiously.

“What do you mean?”

“What I mean is, I’m going home…”

Bucky chuckled, pushing Loki lightly on the arm. “That’s the opposite of runnin’ away, Pretty Boy.”

Loki frowned and attempted to shove Bucky back but miscalculated and fell forward, half slumped across Bucky’s lap. “You didn’t let me finish my sentence,” he said with a pout.

“Go on then. Enlighten me.”  
“I’m going to- gunna confront my parents. Force them to- to tell me the truth. Shove the evidence,” he said, kicking at his backpack for emphasis, “right in their faces. And then I’m going to… then I’m gunna pack my bags and leave.”

“Where you plannin’ on goin’?”

“Why- why do you care?”

“Like I said earlier, a pretty boy like you can’t be wanderin’ the streets at night. That’s a sure fire way to get yourself in serious trouble.”

“I’ll sneak into the school at night.”  
With a scoff, Bucky shook his head. “You’re going to sneak into a locked and monitored school every night? You’re right, that’s a great idea,” he said, rolling his eyes.

They lapsed into silence again; Loki frowning indignantly at Bucky’s sarcasm.

“Are you sure ‘bout runnin’ away? Not just a dumb drunk idea?”

Loki growled and pulled away from Bucky, stumbling and falling into the other end of the bench. “Fuck you, you punk ass. I’ve been thinking about running away all day- long before you showed up and got me drunk.”

“I didn’t get you drunk. You chose to drink on your own.”

When Loki opened his mouth to argue back, Bucky sighed. “Look, if you’re serious ‘bout this, I got a buddy who’s attending the community college just outside’a town. He’s sharin’ an apartment with three other guys. He owes me a favor. I can get him to let you crash at his place for a bit until we come up with a more permanent placement.”

Loki scoffed. “Why would you want to help me?”

Reaching down, Bucky grabbed his backpack and stood up. “I feel sorry for ya and I sympathize. My father was an asshole. He beat my mother and I, and then abandoned us while she was pregnant with his child. I’ve gotta do whatever shady shit I can to earn enough money to help take care of her and my lil’ sister. So I get it. Life is shit. If I’d had a friend lookin’ out for me, it would’a helped. Just think on it, yeah? I’ll be here same time Monday if you decide you want to crash at my buddy’s place.”

With that, Bucky followed the pathway out of the park and took the road which would eventually lead back to school.

Loki sighed, letting his body slide down until he was lying on the bench. Everything felt like it was spinning and he squeezed his eyes shut to block the world out. As much as he wanted to be drunk during this confrontation, he knew it was a conversation he needed to be having sober. Even though it took all his effort, and his bones felt like jelly, Loki heaved himself off the bench, retrieved his backpack, and started the long journey home.

Even with his hazy brain, he knew the route home perfectly. If he stopped for something to eat to help him sober up, he could procrastinate and not be home for another four hours. That would hopefully give his parents enough time to arrive so he could confront them before their stupid family dinner.


	8. Chapter Eight (Loki's POV)

Sobered up and ready for battle, Loki opened the front door a couple minutes before his parents usually arrived home. Thor was sat in the single armchair facing the door, and he jumped up the second he saw his brother.

“Loki?” Thor asked hesitantly. Despite his careful tone, he was out of his seat and standing in front of Loki in one quick movement.

“Don’t,” Loki hissed, jerking away from Thor. “Just, don’t.”

“Loki.” Thor whispered his name, soft and gentle and heartbroken. “You’ll always be my brother.”

“Stop!” Loki cried. “I am not your brother!”

Thor froze and stared at Loki in shock. “Don’t say that.”

“Why not? It’s the truth. I am not your brother.” Loki could feel himself shaking as the rage burned deep in his gut.

“You don’t know that. Some stupid science experiment in class doesn’t mean anything.” Thor reached out to grab his brother’s hand, but Loki jerked backwards.

“Yes it does. We aren’t related and my blood proves it!” Loki screamed.

One second they were screaming at each other, the next thing Thor had tackled Loki to the ground and was hitting him. “Stop saying shit like that. Stop it. Stop it. Stop it.”

“Get the fuck off of me,” Loki yelled, thrashing about and kicking out at Thor.

Tables got knocked over, a vase shattered, lips were split and blood dripped across the floor. Just as Loki jammed his elbow into Thor’s throat, causing Thor to rear back, gasping for air, a shrill scream echoed around the room.

“Thor, Loki, what the hell are you two doing?” Frigga yelled. She quickly ran over from the doorway and yanked on Thor’s shoulders to separate the two boys. Thor stumbled backwards, still struggling to catch his breath.

“What is the meaning of this?” Odin asked, looking down at his two sons as he pointed towards the mess they had caused in their tussle.

The two boys stared at each other for a moment. The single moment hung in the air between them like a shard of glass balancing on the edge. Loki was the one to break the moment; shattering the glass into nothing but dust.

“The meaning of this,” Loki gasped in disbelief. He stood up and brushed the back of his hand against his lip, tasting the tangy hint of blood. “The meaning of this is that you lied to me. My whole life.”

“Loki, my Dear, what are you talking about?” Frigga asked carefully.

“What the fuck do you think I’m talking about?” Loki snarled back.

Odin snapped. “Do not ever use that type of language towards your Mother!”

“She’s not my Mother!” Loki shouted. The words hung in the air between them all. No one said anything. No one even took a breath.

Everything froze and for just a few seconds, Loki could see the raw emotions on everyone’s faces. The resignation on Odin’s face. The distraught heartbroken look Frigga was wearing. What hurt Loki the most was the look on Thor’s face; as if someone had ripped Thor’s beating heart out of his chest and was holding it out for him to see.

“Loki,” Frigga spoke softly.

Loki whipped around and stared at her, tears burning his eyes and the world tearing open beneath his feet. Feeling his backpack was still on his back, he yanked open the section he’d seen Bucky put the slides and sheet of paper into earlier and grabbed them.

“You lied to me. All these years you lied,” he babbled, shoving the glass slides with his blood and the piece of paper with the example blood types into Frigga’s hands. “That’s my blood. I did the experiment twice and double checked the results with the pictures of each blood type on that paper and it’s a perfect match to O+. That isn’t fucking possible when everyone else in this family is either AB or A+. Why don’t you just tell me the fucking truth?”

Frigga glanced down at the microscope slides in her hand and her whole body began to shake as tears welled in her eyes. “Yes it’s…” she stuttered, trying to form the words. “Yes, you were adopted, Loki. But you were always my son, even if I wasn’t the one to give birth to you. We only did what we thought was best for you by not telling you about your adoption,” she tried to explain to him, reaching out for her son.

Loki jerked backwards, stumbling into the wall. “What was best for me? Were you ever going to tell me? Did I ever deserve the right to know my entire life has been a farce? It all makes sense now; why you always favored Thor over me. Because I’m not your actual son.”

“You are our son, Loki,” Frigga said, attempting to reach for him again.

Loki shoved her hand away, anger burning through his veins and replacing the sadness he felt a moment ago. “I get it now; why you were so interested in attending all of Thor’s games while you never wanted to attend my art shows. Why bother making me feel worthy of your attention or love when you could put your time and energy into the biological son you have?”

“We have always treated you equally-” Odin started to say.

“That’s a lie!” Loki yelled. “You made it quite clear growing up that you favored Thor. Now I know why. You never loved me the way you loved Thor because I’m not yours.”

“Loki, please. We have always loved and cared for you,” Frigga said, her voice wavering as a fresh round of tears spilled down her cheeks.

“By loved and cared do you mean deceived and cheated. I am not your son,” Loki said, taking a step away from his pseudo-family towards the door. “You could have told me the truth. Instead you hid it from me like it was some dirty little secret. Like I was some horrible monster you couldn’t allow the world to know about.”

“We didn’t want you to feel like you were any less of our son by telling you the truth,” Frigga replied, her voice cracking.

“What truth? Why not say it to my face that I was adopted? Why fool me my entire life into thinking I belonged to this family when I don’t,” Loki yelled.

“You were abandoned! Left to die in a basket outside the old church on the other side of town. Your fate was to die outside of that church on your own as an infant; unwanted by the teen mother who birthed you,” Odin snapped.

Loki sucked in a breath, his eyes burning as tears leaked from his eyes and dripped down his cheek bones.

“Odin,” Frigga choked on a sob.

“You wanted the truth. Now you have it. We took you in because no one else wanted you. Now I regret ever having found you and making the choice to bring you in,” Odin said coldly.

“Odin!” Frigga cried, simultaneously shooting her husband looks of betrayal while attempting to reach out to console her son.

Loki darted his gaze towards Thor in hopes that his brother would defend him like he always did; that he would turn and tell Odin that Loki did belong here and that Loki would always be his brother. Their eyes locked, and Loki sent his brother a desperate look, a plea to the person he was closest to in this world. Loki silently begged Thor through that one brief look to stick up for him; to say that Loki was important and worthy and loved by his supposed family, that he couldn’t imagine his life without his younger brother by his side.

Thor stared at him for a few moments, signs of the internal struggle between choosing his parents or his brother lighting behind his eyes, before he dropped his gaze to the floor and his shoulders slumped in defeat.

Loki opened his mouth, prepared to say something-- to shout and scream and lash out at his brother for betraying him when they had always had each other’s backs-- but nothing came out. His brother had not only been his last line of defense, but he’d also been Loki’s last reason for staying. Maybe it was the close bond they had as brothers that made him want to cling on to Thor, or maybe it was because deep down his crush for Thor was still there. He’d told himself on his walk home that if he had Thor by his side through all of this then he wouldn’t run away. He’d sworn to himself that his brother would chose his side over their parents, because that was how it had always been. But now, not even Thor was there to defend him. When it came down to it, the only person Loki truly trusted in this world had broken his heart.

When the realization sunk in that there was truly nothing left for him, he turned on his heel without a word, flung the door open, and fled into the cool evening breeze. He hovered at the end of the driveway for a brief moment, hoping to hear his name being called or to see someone chase out of the house after him and beg him to stay.

Not a word was spoken into the quiet air of the outside world. There was no sounds of the door swinging open nor was there any thumping of hurried footsteps to stop Loki from leaving. A sob caught in Loki’s throat and suddenly everything hit him all at once.

He doubled over and vomited, tears mixing with sweat and bile. He couldn’t catch his breath, and he was reminded of the time he’d broken down in Freshman year over some art project and got himself worked up into a state. Thor had rushed into his room and rubbed his back, soothing him until he could breathe again.  
This time there was no back rubs. No soft words spoken to ease the tightness in his chest. There was just a gaping Thor-sized hole in Loki’s heart.

The few agonizing minutes it took to compose himself, he still held onto that fleeting hope someone would run out of the house to come looking for him.

No one did.

With one final look back at the house he’d once called home, Loki forced himself to turn away and walk out of the neighborhood, down the long road that led back to the school. Screw what Bucky had told him earlier- how hard could it be to sneak back into the school to crash there for a couple of nights.


	9. Chapter Nine (Thor's POV)

Thor sat in his room on Sunday night, staring at the walls, feeling numb. In fact, other than the waves of pure panic that came and went every time he let his thoughts wander too far, Thor hadn’t felt much else since Loki had left on Friday evening.

Everything had been such a blind panic and regret on Friday night that Thor couldn’t remember anything that happened after Loki bolted from the door. He knew he’d blown off the rugby game. He had a faint memory of calling the coach and saying he couldn’t play in the game that night because of a family emergency.

Other than that, all he could remember was the feeling that his heart had disappeared out the door along with Loki, leaving nothing but the shell of Thor behind. He’d felt completely empty without Loki by his side, as if his entire heart and soul was attached to his brother.

Brother. There was no way Thor couldn’t associate Loki with the term. Loki was his brother. He didn’t give two shits about the fact that Loki wasn’t related by blood. Finding out about the adoption made no difference to him; Loki was his brother regardless of the fact his blood was different.

If only he’d been able to tell Loki that on Friday. He’d wanted to. He’d tried to. The words had gotten lodged in his throat and he couldn’t find the right way to say everything he was thinking in that moment. His thoughts had been so jumbled and nothing had made sense. The fear and the worry, the shock and confusion, had all gotten to him when Loki had looked him in the eyes with such a devastatingly pleading look. And Thor had frozen. He’d panicked, the entire thing had taken him off guard, and he couldn’t find the words to say to remedy the situation. So instead, he’d given up. He’d felt so weak, so powerless, and completely lost. He couldn’t even manage to say sorry to Loki or to tell him he loved him. Instead, he’d dropped his head in defeat and left his brother alone to face the most devastating truth of his life.

Loki had fled, and his heart had followed.

The next thing he remembered, it was Saturday and he’d gone out looking for Loki on one side of town while his parents searched the other side of town. They’d all spent all day searching everywhere they could possibly think of for Loki, but no one had found him.

Thor lost count after the 50th time he tried to call Loki’s phone. It went straight to voicemail every time. Each time he reached voicemail, another little piece of his heart shattered.

At home that night he could hear his parents screaming at each other from the other side of the house. Frigga begged and screamed to file a missing person’s report to find her son. Odin disagreed, saying that involving the police was the wrong choice to make, and he believed they just needed to give Loki space and time; that he’d make his way back home when he was ready.

All Thor could hear was his Mother’s heartbroken sobs over her missing son. He’d had to bury his head under his pillow to block out the sounds of her cries and his own suffocating feelings of failing his little brother.

Saturday bled into Sunday and while his parents stayed home in hopes of Loki returning to them, Thor had once again gone out to look for his brother. He couldn’t just sit back and wait with baited breath in hopes Loki would come home. He needed to do more because he was yearning for Loki’s presence, and he wasn’t quite sure why he felt like if he did nothing his heart was going to explode from loneliness.

For over half the day, he trailed around the parks and shops looking for any signs of Loki’s dark flowing locks or his bright blue eyes. He even asked every stranger he passed if they had seen his brother, which earned him either strange looks and total avoidance or a quick mutter of ‘no, sorry, I haven’t.’

Eventually he’d given up and trudged home. He’d let himself build up that little glimmer of false hope that Loki would be at home already, waiting to playfully tackle him when he walked in the door. When he opened the door, there was no playful wrestling, and no Loki. Just a too quiet home; the only sounds the occasional sniffle or soft cry coming from the Master bedroom.

Thor had sulked to his bedroom, kicking at the floor along the way as the rage simmered. None of this was fair and he hated every second of it. Deep down, Thor knew he wasn’t himself without Loki by his side.

Collapsing into his desk chair in defeat, he stared blankly at the walls as he wallowed in his own misery. It must have been hours later when a knock at his bedroom door caused him to shake his head and finally drag his eyes away from the wall his bedroom shared with Loki’s.

Odin pushed the door open. “Do you mind if I come in?” he asked.

Thor nodded and politely faced his father, who stood in the entrance of the room. “Your Mother and I have agreed to allow your brother the space he needs to come to terms with everything. We both firmly believe he’ll come back home when he’s ready to.”

Thor frowned and shook his head. He didn’t like that idea at all. Loki had always been one for theatrics. There was no way he’d just come sulking home.

“We need you to do us a favor, Thor. We need you to keep an eye out for Loki at school throughout the week. Let us know if he’s still attending classes. But we don’t want you to confront him. Keep your distance and allow him to come to you. We feel if any of us make a move towards him before he’s ready, we may end up losing him for good.”

“What makes you so sure we haven’t lost him already?” Thor snapped, jumping up from his seat as the anger started to build.

“Calm down, Thor. We know our son-”

“And I know my brother. He’s not just going to forgive us for what we did to him and come sulking back on his own. He’s too prideful and dramatic for that.”

Odin squared his shoulders, his body starting to shake from repressed rage. “You will not intervene, Thor. You will not interact with Loki under any circumstance if you do see him. This is not a request, it’s an order. Do you understand?”

Thor grit his teeth and crossed his arms across his chest, but gave a single sharp nod. “Yes, Father.”

Odin gave a cut nod and turned to leave. “Go to sleep, Thor. We will not have you skipping school tomorrow because of these events.” With that, Odin left and closed the door behind him with a loud snap.

The anger that had been building inside Thor all day was suddenly bubbling over and he kicked his trash can into the wall, causing a loud bang and a massive scratch across the paint. Thor smirked, filled with a small satisfaction at having damaged the wall. The satisfaction didn’t last long though, as the anger returned once again.

Thor had never felt more sure in his life that his father was wrong. His father didn’t know Loki like he did. Well, up until the last week anyway. Things had started down this fucked up path the night of their movie night celebration. The way Loki had looked at him that night when they’d been wrestling- something had changed. Thor just wasn’t sure if the change had been instantaneous in that moment or if it had been something else going on in Loki’s mind prior to that.

The more he sat there and replayed the moment over in his head, the more he found himself fixated on one tiny detail from that evening. When he’d had Loki pinned down and was taunting him about meaning it when he said he had yielded, there had been the briefest moment with him staring down at Loki and Loki staring back at him. A fraction of a second where Loki’s expression shifted from annoyed to something else. If Thor had anyone else in the world pinned down like that, he would swear it was a look of lust; of longing and desire. But that wouldn’t make any sense. They were brothers. Why would Loki be looking at him like that?

A brief second of lust could be ignored, right? Who wouldn’t get slightly turned on by being held down like that?

But thinking back on it, Loki had let his eyes settle on Thor’s lips and he’d licked his own lips as if imagining something else. And there had been brief flickers of desire beyond lust that had danced in his little brother’s eyes.

The more Thor sat pondering it, the more confused he became. Was there really hints of Loki being aroused and interested that night? Or was his mind warping the memory now that Loki was gone and Thor needed him?

Or was Thor projecting his own feelings onto a memory of Loki…

Suddenly, as if a bucket of water had been thrown at his face, Thor lurched up from the bed. “What the hell am I thinking?” Thor muttered to himself. Projecting his own feelings onto Loki’s memory… what did that even mean? He didn’t like Loki as more than a brother, did he?

‘I mean, it’s completely normal to be physically close to my brother, right? So what if we’ve always been each other’s first priority and closest friend. The fact I’m the one out looking for him and worrying about him most just shows how close our brotherly bond is. And sure, I’m the only one Loki allows to touch him. And maybe I like being the only one to touch him and I like making a show of it in public to make sure everyone knows I’m special to Loki. And maybe I’ve always protected him and jumped to his defense, but what brother wouldn’t do that? So what if I like spending time with him more than anyone else. Or the fact that I find myself braiding his hair when we sit and watch TV together. Or how I never mind sharing my food with him but I hate anyone else touching my food. And maybe I find myself gravitating to Loki at all times, physically pressing up against him so our bodies are touching no matter where we are. There’s nothing wrong with that, is there?’ Thor thought to himself.

After a couple seconds in which Thor reflected on what he had just thought to himself, he froze. “Oh,” he mumbled softly, everything clicking into place. “I’m in love with my brother.”

It made perfect sense the more Thor thought about it. He’d been in love with Loki for a long time and not even realized it. The simple things he thought of as brotherly suddenly didn’t seem so innocent now. How Thor hated to allow anyone to capture Loki’s attention except for him, and how he purposefully antagonized Loki or was the one to start play fights with his brother because he liked the physical contact; the thought of pinning his brother underneath him.

“I am so fucked,” muttered Thor as he dropped back down on his bed.

As if being in love with his brother wasn’t complicated enough; he was in love with his brother who was apparently adopted and had run away from home. Yep. He was so royally and utterly fucked.

~

Thor couldn’t get to school quick enough on Monday morning. He was determined to find Loki. Regardless of what his father had said, Thor needed to speak to him. It wasn’t just that he missed his brother. Now he knew what his feelings towards Loki were, he was craving the physical closeness and comfort from his little brother’s presence.

As soon as he got to school, he detoured away from his first class of the day and instead walked to the biology classroom where Loki’s first class was held. Students had begun to fill the room, but there were no signs of Loki. However, Tony Stark glanced up at the same time Thor peered into the room and he immediately jumped out of his seat and jogged over to Thor.

“What happened with Loki?” he demanded.

Thor scowled at him. “It’s none of your business what happened with my brother.”

“He’s my lab partner.”

“Oh, yeah, I forgot that gives you privileges to know about his personal life. You’re his lab partner, not his friend. I don’t need to tell you anything regarding my brother.”

“Is he really your brother though? Last time I checked, his blood didn’t match any of your families so do you really get to go around claiming him as your brother,” Tony snarked right back.

Thor didn’t even think, he just lunged at Tony and knocked him straight to the ground as hard as he could. There was a loud thunk as Tony’s body hit the floor but Thor didn’t seem to notice. There was nothing but the blind rage and the need to protect his brother at all costs. He threw all of his weight into Stark to keep him held down on the cold tile floor. His first punch missed the mark, but his second attempt made contact with Tony’s sternum, earning a muffled gasp of pain and a shocked struggle to take a breath.

Tony took a second to recover before he swung his fist up at Thor, catching him in the lip and reopening the cut Loki had caused over the weekend. Blood dripped down Thor’s chin and splattered across Tony’s shirt. Tony shoved his elbow up and knocked the side of Thor’s jaw, jerking his head back hard.

Thor growled angrily and jammed his knee down into Stark’s shoulder, causing a yelp of pain. Curses and yells bounced down the hallway but Thor was so lost to the fury he wasn’t sure if it was him or Tony throwing the insults. He attempted to hit Tony again but before he could land a punch to Tony’s face someone grabbed him harshly by the shoulders and pulled him away.

“Don’t you ever fucking talk about Loki that way in front of me, asshole!” Thor screamed, struggling to break out of the vice grip someone had on his biceps.

“That is enough! Both of you to the principal's office. Not even 8am and I already have students fighting in my class,” the biology teacher said as she also grabbed hold of Tony and marched them down the hall to the principal’s office.

“This is all your fault, you absolute dick,” Tony muttered, wincing and covering his chest with his arm as they walked down the hall.

Thor said nothing, just growled lowly and spat a mouthful of blood onto the floor.

Tony was taken straight in to talk to the principal while Thor was shoved down into a seat just outside of the principal’s office. The biology teacher regarded him for a second before she took a step back. “Does all of this have to do with Loki running out of class last week?” she asked carefully.

“My family’s business is no concern of the school’s,” Thor said, gritting his teeth to stop himself from saying anything that would get him in even more trouble with this teacher.

“Well, causing fights is a matter of concern for the school. I know you’re a good kid, Thor, but you cannot allow personal family matters to cause such issues within school grounds, regardless if you were standing up for your brother’s honor.”

Thor just gave one sharp nod to show he had heard and kept his eyes firmly locked on the ground. He watched as the teacher’s feet disappeared from his view and he sunk down into his seat as the anger ebbed away. He hadn’t intentionally lashed out at Tony like that. He couldn’t help it if he was irrationally protective and possessive over Loki, especially with all these complicated emotions about his younger brother muddled together in his brain.

The door to the principal’s office opened a few minutes later and Tony strolled out, shooting a glare at Thor as he walked past. Principal Fury poked his head out of the door a moment later. “Mr. Odinson,” he addressed, gesturing for Thor to come in.

With a heavy sigh, Thor pulled himself out of the uncomfortable plastic seat and cautiously walked into the office.

“Please, have a seat,” Principal Fury said. “Now, why don’t you tell me what caused the fight?” he asked after Thor had sank down into the green cushioned seat.

Thor frowned, tugging at the sleeve of his jacket. How did he explain the reason behind why he snapped without revealing too much about Loki. “Some… things happened at home. There’s been some… there was…. Okay fine. There was a massive fight at home. Some things came to light that we weren’t expecting and my brother has been very hurt but these things. I was just looking for Loki this morning to talk with him. Tony confronted me instead and he said some things that rubbed me the wrong way. I snapped.”  
“What kind of things did he say, exactly?”

Suddenly, the anger was back and Thor felt the sudden urge to flip the table separating him from the principal. “He made some disgusting implications about a very sensitive topic in regards to my brother. I don’t appreciate people like Tony Stark taking digs at my brother like that.”

The principal gave a curt nod and leaned back in his seat. “While I can understand this is clearly a sensitive issue for you, we have a zero tolerance policy for violence in this school, Mr. Odinson. I am suggesting you take a leave of absence from school for the next couple of days to work these issues out privately with your family. I will not have students starting fights in my school. I’m sure your brother can stand up for himself without the need for you to involve yourself.”

Thor opened his mouth for a second to argue about defending Loki when he was hit with the realization of what the principal had just said. “I’m suspended?” His voice wobbled slightly as the gravity of the situation dawned on him.

Principal Fury nodded. “Yes, Mr. Odinson. A two day suspension for the fight. I will be contacting your parents to inform them of what has occurred. In the meantime, I suggest working things out in your personal life and finding a better outlet for your anger so it does not escalate to fighting again.”

“Yes, Sir,” Thor said, the anger seeping out of him once more, leaving him drained and emotionally exhausted.

“Do you have a ride home or do I need to tell your parents to come get you?” the principal asked, jotting down a note quickly before looking back to Thor.

“I have a car. I can drive home.” Thor stood up and tightened the strap on his backpack. He turned to leave before changing his mind and looking back to the principal. “Sir, may I ask something?”

Principal Fury nodded.

“If you see Loki, could you please tell him I’m looking for him. Or, well, if you see him here at school, could you at least let me know that he’s been here,” Thor said. He reached up and brushed his hand over his lip nervously, swiping away the blood that had been welling up and causing a strong metallic taste in the back of his throat.

He watched carefully as Principal Fury thought over what Thor had said. He could see the exact moment the principal understood the reasoning behind Thor’s request when his lips turned downwards and his eyes softened.

“I will keep my eye out for Loki and will pass on the message should I see him. If he’s here, I will tell you upon your arrival for classes on Wednesday,” Principal Fury said gently.

With a nod of thanks, Thor slipped out of the office as quickly as he could. He didn’t want to be nearby to hear the phone call to his parents about his suspension.

~

The rest of Monday and Tuesday dragged on so painfully, Thor was convinced he was going to die from being cooped up at home. His parents had grounded him the second they got home on Monday. Frigga had sobbed openly, crying about how one son had run away and now her second son was getting in trouble and getting into fights, which he’d never done before.

Thor had retreated to his room. He felt like he couldn’t breathe, guilt weighing him down and making his hands sweat and his body shake. He’d considered sneaking out to go search for Loki, but he knew it was pointless. Loki was impossible to find if he didn’t want to be found. And the idea of causing his parents even more stress and upset by sneaking out wasn’t worth it.

Instead, Thor crawled into bed and let his thoughts wander back to Loki. Loki’s grin he saved just for him. The way he would laugh and his eyes would crinkle just so. How he would pull faces at Thor when things were too serious, just to make Thor laugh. The simple things like the small proud smile Loki would flash at Thor when he watched his rugby games, or the fact he always came to every single game to support his older brother; even if he fake complained about how much he hated attending the games, Thor always knew Loki liked to support him in his own quiet way. How when Loki was bored he would walk into Thor’s room, collapse on the bed next to his brother, propping his legs up on top of Thor’s, and they’d easily fall into the rhythm of talking about their days or something amusing they’d seen or something dumb they’d done that day. Or how Loki would casually allow Thor to lean up against him if Thor was tired, yet snapped at anyone else if they even attempted to touch him the way Thor did.

It was the thoughts of Loki that calmed Thor and lulled him to sleep. He dreamt of his younger brother just being himself; never wavering from remaining right next to Thor’s side, their hands interlocked to anchor them together.

~

Wednesday came and Thor followed through with his idea to follow Loki’s usual paths between classes to see if his brother showed up to school. He avoided running into Tony again, least his newly found control over his anger slip once again. By lunch time, Thor hadn’t seen a glimpse of Loki’s dark hair or flashing blue eyes. He was just about to give up when he remembered his deal with the Principle. He saw Sif and grabbed her arm, tugging her to the side of the cafeteria door. “Save me a seat, alright? There’s something I need to do before I can eat lunch.”

Sif nodded, but her eyes scanned over his face carefully, trying to decipher Thor’s expression. “Are you sure you’re okay, Thor? You get suspended for a fight and you haven’t told any of us what’s going on.” Her thumb stroked over the back of her friend’s hand gently. “We’re just worried about you. And about Loki.”

Thor’s gaze sharpened and he began to ask, “How did you-”

“We’ve noticed his disappearance, too. I’m not sure what’s going on, Thor, but we do actually care for you and for Loki, despite the way everyone teases your brother. Seriously, is everything okay with you both?”

Thor felt the stress melt out of his body and he dropped his head to Sif’s shoulder, burying his head into her neck. “No. Everything has gone to shit and I don’t know how to handle any of it. I miss…” He trailed off before he could say anything he’d regret.

Sif made a soft humming noise and wrapped her arms around Thor, rubbing his back soothingly. “You miss him. There’s nothing wrong with missing your brother, Thor.”

“Yeah, I know,” Thor mumbled. Sif would never understand, and she never could.

He pulled back and rubbed at his face, giving himself a second to recompose. “I’ll be back, okay? Just, grab me something to eat. I’ll pay you back later.”

Smiling softly, Sif shook her head. “This one’s on me. You need a break, Thor, and I’m always here if you want to talk.”

“Thanks, Sif.” He gave her another quick hug and disappeared down the hall towards the Principal’s office.

He barely brought his hand up to the door to knock when one of the assistants spoke up. “You can just go in. He thought he might be seeing you today.”

“Um, right,” Thor muttered, kicking the toe of his shoe against the floor and rubbing the back of his neck. Not wanting to hang around in the reception any longer than he had to, he slipped into the office.

“Ah, Mr. Odinson. I was expecting to see you sometime today. Have you been able to find some inner peace over the last couple of days?”

Thor shuffled into the seat, ducking his head and scratching lightly at his arm. “Uh, yeah, sure.”

“I’m assuming you’re here to inquire about your brother?”

Thor nodded before remembering his manners. “Yes, Sir, I am.”

“Loki did not attend classes on Monday. He did show up on Tuesday for his classes. I pulled him aside and told him you were looking for him,” Principal Fury said.

Thor waited patiently for all of two seconds before he became agitated. “What did he say?”

“Nothing. He thanked me and left the office. He has not returned today.”

“Shouldn’t you be calling our parents to tell them Loki’s been missing classes?” Thor asked. He gripped hold of the armrest, digging his fingers into the wood to ground himself.

“Usually, yes. However, given this seems to be a delicate situation, we will not take action until Loki has missed a week’s worth of school.”

“That’s bullshit!” As soon as he said it, Thor gasped and threw his hand up over his mouth. “I am so sorry, Sir. My deepest apologies. I didn’t mean to.”

Principal Fury chuckled. “Your bad language is the least of my concerns, Mr. Odinson. I have dealt with a lot worse from other students here. I’ll take it as a step forward that you merely lashed out with words instead of actions. However, please refrain from language of that sort in the future.”

Thor dropped his head in submission.

“We shall keep tabs on your brother and will take action when we feel it is necessary. Now, if my clock is correct it is lunch time. You wouldn’t want to miss that nutrition, would you?”

“No, Sir. Thank you,” Thor said. He jumped up and bolted from the room as quickly and respectfully as he could. Returning to lunch sounded exhausting, and right now Thor would rather be anywhere else in the world instead of in a room with all of his peers judging him. But he couldn’t just bail on Sif after she was buying him lunch.

Instead, he sent a text to her asking if she would come eat with him in the library. He knew he didn’t need to explain why to her. She texted back almost immediately saying she would be there with his food and they could have a quiet lunch together.

Thor had never been more grateful in his entire life to have such an amazing friend.

~

By Thursday, Thor had reached his wits end. If he didn’t see Loki today he was going to go ballistic. He once again peered into Loki’s classes on the way to his own, but he caught no sight of his brother anywhere. The tension was building behind his eyes, making him twitch slightly.

Lunch creeped ever closer, each class draining every last second of patience Thor had. He was determined to go back to Principal Fury during lunch to ask if his brother had attended classes today and was just ignoring Thor.

By the time he reached French, his hands were shaking and he kept bouncing his right leg.

“Thor, are you alright?” Heimdall asked, turning around to face him when his pencil fell off his desk for the fifth time since Thor’s leg bouncing began, sending vibrations all the way to Heimdall’s desk.

“I’m fine,” Thor replied through gritted teeth.

“Are you coming to eat with us today? You and Sif just ditched without giving us a heads up,” Heimdall pointed out. Thor glanced at his friend and could see worry and hints of understanding in his softened expression.

Thor sighed and forced himself to take a breath. He couldn’t afford to alienate himself and push his friends away in a time like this. It wasn’t fair on them. He’d could just ditch out of the last five minutes of lunch to see the principal.

“Yeah, sorry, Heimdall. I’ll be there for lunch. It’s just been…”

Heimdall nodded, giving Thor a sad smile. “I know. It’s okay. We all understand, and just want to help.”

When the lunch bell rang, Thor trudged behind Heimdall into the cafeteria. He found himself on autopilot as he picked up a plate of food and walked to the back of the lunch room, collapsing in his seat.

“Thor! You joined us. Been awhile since we’ve seen you,” Hogun said, dropping down into his seat across from Thor.

“He’s been having a hard time. Leave him be,” Sif said, sliding into the open seat next to Thor which Heimdall usually sat in. Sif reached out and squeezed his hand, and Thor felt himself smiling for the first time all day. Sif always did know how to make him feel at ease.

The inane sound of merging conversations began to tick up as the rest of his friends made their way to the table. After a few minutes, the usual loud mixture of voices reached its usual peak and Thor slouched back against the wall. He picked up his slice of pizza and took a bite without taking his eyes off the door. He’d already scanned the entire cafeteria and hadn’t seen his brother any-

As casual as ever, Loki strolled into the room, some biker looking punk in a leather jacket with his hair up in a bun at his side. Thor immediately went to stand up but Sif tugged him back down to his seat by his sleeve. “No, Thor. You’re only going to make a scene and I know that’s not what you want.”

“But he’s right there, Sif. I haven’t seen him or talked to him since he bolted out of the house on Friday.”

Sif shook her head softly, reaching up to lock her fingers with Thor’s. “Grab him at the end of lunch. Whatever conversation you two need to have is going to be explosive enough without the entire school watching.”

“Why are you always right about everything?” Thor sighed, dropping his head down onto the table.

Sif glanced around at their friends but none of them seemed to be paying attention. They were, as always, absorbed into their own conversations. She ran her fingers through Thor’s hair gently. “Woman’s intuition.”

Thor groaned and lifted his head. His attention was immediately drawn back to Loki, who had now taken a seat with biker boy.

“Why is he with them?” he muttered. “He shouldn’t be hanging out with the punks and delinquents of the school.”  
“Thor,” Sif said warningly, putting her hand on his shoulder.

Glancing down, he realized he was squeezing his bottle of water to the point it was about to burst. He let it go and it thunked down against the table.

“Look at me, Thor.”

Sighing, Thor tore his eyes away from his brother and looked at Sif. “You need to get some control. I know this is difficult for you but you know for a fact if you go marching over there he’s just going to take off and disappear again. Let him come to you.”

Thor scoffed, rolling his eyes. “You sound just like my parents now.”

Sif put her hands up in defeat. “I’m just trying to help you, okay?” she said quietly.

“I know,” muttered Thor with a sigh. “Doesn’t make it any easier to sit here and look at him.”

“You sound like a lovesick puppy, Thor.”

A shiver ran down Thor’s spine and his posture straightened instantly. He felt the hairs on the back of his neck rise and he tried to speak but felt the air had been sucker-punched out of his chest. “I’m not- I mean we’re not… that’s not… why would you think that?”

Sif looked at Thor strangely, raising one of her eyebrows at him for a second before shaking her head. “Geeze, Thor, it’s just an expression. I don’t think anything. You two have always been close; closer than any other brothers I know, but that’s just the way you two are.” She shrugged, turning her attention back to the sandwich on her plate.

With a sigh of relief, Thor allowed himself to slouch back again. There was no way Sif really knew how he felt about Loki. It was just an expression, after all. He looked back over in Loki’s direction again and froze.

Loki was staring at him. They locked eyes and Thor felt his mouth go dry. He tried desperately to swallow but found himself unable to force his throat to complete the action. He couldn’t even force his lungs to drag in another gasp of air. Loki’s dazzling blue eyes shined at him, and Thor wanted nothing more than to march across the cafeteria, yank Loki up by his shirt, and kiss him until every cell in his brothers body knew exactly who he belonged to.

As if sensing Thor’s thoughts, Loki tore his gaze away from his brother. Thor watched as Loki leaned forward to whisper something in biker boy’s ear. He saw biker boy flash a smirk at his brother and pull a packet of cigarettes out of his jacket pocket. He waved it in front of Loki, and Loki popped the box open, pulled one out and proceeded to stand up. Biker boy followed, grabbing both of their backpacks as they walked for the door that led outside.

“What the fuck? He’s got Loki smoking now. That’s it,” Thor snarled. He managed to half stand up before Sif intervened.

“No,” Sif snapped, yanking Thor back into his seat. Thor wobbled for a second as he fell back into the chair. “Loki isn’t the type of guy to allow anyone to pressure him into anything. Bucky didn’t force him to smoke.”

Thor growled again and shoved Sif off of him. “I’m going to kill that punk ass Bucky.”

“No, you’re not.”

“Yes, I am,” Thor said firmly, standing up.

“If you get into another fight you’ll probably be expelled. Thor, just go take a walk and calm down. If you go marching after him he’ll never talk to you again,” Sif reasoned.

Thor knew she was right and he hated her for it. Instead, before he ripped Bucky’s head off, he grabbed his own bag and marched out of the lunch room in the direction of the gym. He had no idea how to deal with the entire ordeal and nothing cleared his head like working out and lifting weights.


	10. Chapter Ten (Thor's POV)

After waiting to see Loki for the rest of the day at school and not catching a single glimpse of him, Thor had stormed out of his last class with absolutely no patience left. He opened the door with bated breath, but was left with another pit in his stomach when he couldn’t smell any traces of his brother’s aftershave.

His attempt to cool off in the school gym had been a complete waste of time. Even lifting weights and punching the shit out of some punching bags hadn’t made Thor feel any better.

The little control he’d exercised over his anger at the beginning of the week had vanished like mist in the air. He’d broken a glass from gripping it too hard as he put water in it, he’d yelled at his parents and been sent to his room, and he’d torn his homework in half trying to erase an incorrect answer. How was it possible that Loki always managed to pull every kind of emotion out of him even when he was absent from Thor’s life?

Sleeping had been almost impossible, and by the time Thor made it to school on Friday morning he was fuming. He refused to participate in class, and had given up on taking notes after he’d snapped four wooden pencils in half out of sheer frustration.

Heimdall’s words of wisdom made Thor want to flip his desk over, and Sif’s worried looks in the hallway made him want to rip his hair out.

Thor was completely done; fully cognizant of the fact he was the worst version of himself without his brother by his side to keep him grounded. When the lunch bell rang, he grabbed his bag and stomped to the cafeteria. He skipped the lunch line and went straight to his seat at his usual table. This time he was going to find Loki and just march up and drag him away. He didn’t care what Sif said. If his brother was here, he wasn’t going to wait any longer to talk to him. It had been a week for fucks sake. His brother had had enough time away to think things through. Besides, he hadn’t been the one to hurt Loki, their parents had. So why should Loki be shutting him out when he’d never done anything except support and care for his brother?

Sif quickly darted into the room, also forgoing the line for food, and immediately dropped down next to Thor. “I know what you’re thinking, and it’s a bad idea. Don’t start this. It’s only going to cause more trouble than it’s worth.”

Thor tuned Sif out as he watched his brother walk into the room, his body almost melded together with Bucky’s. The two of them sat down next to each other. Bucky held out some kind of bottle and winked at Loki, who grinned, took a sip, and handed it back.

Thor growled under his breath and made an attempt to move but suddenly felt strong hands on his shoulders. “Do not rise to the bait, Thor. Your brother is purposefully trying to get a rise out of you,” Heimdall said, sitting down on Thor’s other side.

“It’s fucking working then. I’m going to rip that punk’s head off,” Thor seethed.

“It’s unwise for you to be starting any more fights, Thor. You know that. Don’t let your brother’s mind games get to you,” Fandral said. “Just eat something and ignore him. When he realizes you aren’t reacting he’ll give up the charade and come back over here.”

Volstagg pushed half of his burger across to Thor. “Fandral is right. Eat, Thor. Just ignore his antics.”

Thor tried to focus on the food pushed in front of him. He really did. He managed to eat a few mouthfuls of the burger, had a small conversation with Hogun about rugby and how he’d be back to playing next week after the coach had given him a couple weeks to sort his personal life out, and even allowed Sif to braid one small strand of his hair.

But his attention could only be distracted for so long. He found himself glancing back over to the table his brother was sitting at and, once again, Loki was already staring at him. Their eyes locked once more and Thor was left with that dizzying feeling of desire, longing, and desperation.

Loki grinned wickedly at him, and then proceeded to lean over and whisper something in Bucky’s ear. Bucky cocked his head, gave Loki a questioning look, and then nodded. He bent down to whisper something in Loki’s ear, and then pressed his lips to the shell of his ear. He trailed his lips down along Loki’s jawline before pulling away, a smirk on his lips.

Thor snapped. Not even Heimdall and Sif could hold him down now. No one was allowed to touch his brother; not when he so desperately desired to pin Loki down and claim him. Loki was his and only his.  He easily threw his friends off, knocking his chair to the ground in his rage, and stormed across the room; his heart pounding in his ears and his hands shaking with the seething anger bubbling over. He had tunnel vision for Loki and nothing and no one was going to get in his way. The entire room went silent as Thor marched up to the table.

“Get. Up. Now.” Thor hissed, punctuating each word by slamming his fist down on the tabletop.

“No,” Loki said, lazily kicking back and looking up at his brother with a casual look. “You don’t control me. You’re not even my brother.”

Thor was around the table and grabbing hold of Loki’s shirt in neck-breaking speed. “Get the fuck up now or I swear to God I will beat the shit out of every single person at this table.”

“You don’t get to tell him what to do,” Bucky said, standing up from the table and standing toe to toe with Thor.

“He’s my brother. And I’m not about to let punk ass scum like you drool all over him,” Thor growled.

“A bit possessive are we,” Bucky taunted, his face hovering inches from Thor’s.

“You’re just about to find out,” Thor replied. “Loki, last chance. Get up now.”

“Or what?” Loki asked, licking his lips and looking Thor directly in the eyes.

Thor once again didn’t think. He just acted. He swung and punched Bucky right across the jaw, knocking him back several feet with a sickening crack. He then grabbed Loki by the collar, yanked him up, and dragged him from the room. Loki fought back, attempting to break free from Thor’s hold even though they both knew he wasn’t strong enough to beat Thor. “Now look what you’ve done. You’ve caused a massive scene for no-”

Loki stumbled as Thor shoved him into one the alcoves hidden from view of the cameras dotted around the school.

“What are you…”

“Shut the fuck up, Loki.”

Before Loki could make an attempt to do or say anything else, Thor backed him up against the furthest wall of the archway, leaned down, and kissed him fiercely. The anger instantly melted away, replaced by a sense of belonging and desire. Thor tangled his fingers into Loki’s dark locks, tilted his brother’s head up, and used his tongue to part Loki’s lips. He pushed into Loki’s mouth, savoring the little whine his brother released when his tongue ran along the roof of his mouth. He could taste hints of alcohol and tobacco mixed in with the distinct taste of his brother. He massaged Loki’s tongue with his own, before pulling back slightly. He grabbed Loki’s lower lip with his teeth and tugged it lightly, causing Loki to groan and lean forward into Thor’s touch. Thor then tried to take a step back, but Loki’s lips chased after his, and he found he couldn’t resist. He leaned down and captured his brother’s mouth in another kiss.

Loki whined, reaching up to tug at Thor’s arms. Thor pushed Loki back up against the wall and pinned him there. He took advantage of the position and sucked on his brother’s lower lip, tracing it with his tongue before leaning in to kiss Loki deeply once more. When he pulled back a minute later, they were both heaving for a breath, chests rising and falling rapidly. Loki’s eyes darted down to Thor’s lips once again. Thor growled lowly, pushed Loki’s head back against the wall, and kissed him again, running his tongue over Loki’s teeth, causing his brother to shiver.

“Thor,” Loki panted out against Thor’s lips. He pressed a quick peck against his older brother’s mouth before pushing at his chest. “We- we can’t. Someone is bound to walk round that corner any second looking for us.”

Thor growled again, attaching his lips to Loki’s neck and sucking at a spot just beneath his collarbone. “Let them. I want everyone in this goddamn school to know you belong to me and only me,” he said, his voice low and husky.

Loki shivered, his eyes fluttering shut for a second as he tipped his head back against the wall. “Yes,” he hissed.

Thor took advantage of the moment and trailed his lips up Loki’s neck, placing open mouthed kisses from his collarbone to his jaw.

“Thor,” Loki groaned again, pushing gently at his brother’s shoulders.

“I know,” Thor mumbled. Quickly, he shifted his head and pressed his mouth to Loki’s once more. “I’ve been so desperate to do this for so long. You have no idea,” he murmured against Loki’s lips.

A blissed-out look crossed Loki’s face, and Thor smiled brightly. The happy look melted off Loki’s face and he shoved at his brother, causing him to stumble backwards a step.

“What was that for?” Thor asked, a flash of hurt darting behind his eyes. Then he heard the footsteps and he took another conscious step away from his brother.

“Thor? Oh, Thor, why did you have to do that?” Sif asked, appearing at Thor’s side. “You’ve gotten yourself into so much trouble. Principal Fury wants to see you immediately.”

“Shit. Yeah, maybe I didn’t think that one so well through.”

“Come on. I need to escort you to the Principal’s office,” she said, frowning in disappointment.

Thor darted his eyes back to Loki, who was ever so subtly tugging at his collar to hide the red mark Thor had just created.

“Could you… could you give Loki and I just a minute?” he asked Sif.

Sif chewed on her lip nervously for a second, throwing a glance at Heimdall. He gave a slight nod, his eyes darting between Thor and Loki almost knowingly. Thor ducked his head down to hide from that all-seeing look Heimdall had perfected.

“Okay, one minute. We’ll be down by the cafeteria doors. You’re already in enough trouble as it is, don’t make it any worse.”

“Thank you, Sif,” Thor said, giving her a quick hug. He watched and waited until his friends had disappeared around the corner before he lunged back at Loki, kissing him as if Loki was his life source and he’d die without the taste of his brother’s lips.

Loki sighed into the kiss, wrapping his arms around Thor’s neck and tangling his fingers in his older brother’s hair, tugging him closer a little too roughly. They remained that way for a few blissful seconds before Thor pulled away. “Please, come home. You have no idea how much I’ve missed you.”

Loki frowned. “Why? Because you want this?” he asked, gesturing between them with a scowl.

“What? No! No, of course not. I mean, yes. Yes I want this. And I want you, so so badly it hurts. God, Loki. I want you. But that’s not what I meant. I’ve missed having you by my side. My brother. You’re my partner in crime. I can’t live without you.”

“We aren’t brothers, Thor.”

“Yes, yes we are. You think blood is all that makes us family? Loki, just because we aren’t related by blood doesn’t mean you aren’t my brother. You being adopted doesn’t change that. You’re still my brother. You always will be.”

“Brothers aren’t meant to do this, either,” Loki pointed out defiantly, gesturing between them again.

“We’ve never had a particularly normal brotherly bond, have we?” Thor pointed out. “It’s always been more. We just never knew exactly how to describe it until now.”

“How long?” Loki asked.

“A long time, although I only just pieced it together last weekend.” Thor paused for a second. “I didn’t know you wanted it, too. I thought the reaction to the wrestling last week was a fluke; my mind playing tricks on me.”

Loki rolled his eyes and sighed dramatically. “Really? Me looking at your mouth, licking my lips, and leaning up to kiss you was just a fluke?”

Thor laughed, putting his hands up on the wall behind Loki’s head, boxing Loki in. “I wish you had kissed me last week,” he murmured against Loki’s ear.

Loki shuddered, his eyes fluttering shut at the idea. He took a deep breath and shook his head.

“This will never work. We can’t do this. We don’t even know what we are to each other. Throwing this in will make it worse.”

“Are you denying you want it?” Thor asked, tilting his head down to hover his lips over his brother’s.

Loki closed the gap between them, pressing his mouth to Thor’s. The desperate spark reignited in Thor’s gut and he pushed his hips against Loki’s, causing them both to hiss in desire.  
“Come home, Loki. We can work this out together tonight. Whatever this is, we’ll figure it out. But I want my brother back, too. Please, come home. We all miss you.”

Loki pushed back against Thor’s shoulders, causing Thor to take a step back. “Are they sorry? Do they even want me?”

Thor looked at him baffled. “What are you talking about, Loki? Of course they want you. Mother hasn’t stopped crying since you left. I’ve never seen her so unhappy in my life. Your disappearance is killing her.”

“And what about Odin?” Loki asked.

“Brother, he didn’t mean what he said. He’s been different since you left. Short tempered. Distant. He’s lost without you, too. He loves you just as much as Mother does and they’re both proud to call you their son.”

Loki paused, his eyes scanning Thor’s face to see if he was telling the truth. “They said that?”

Thor nodded. “It’s all they talk about. All I ever hear them talk about is you. They want you to come home and be part of this family again. And so do I.”

Loki thought about it for a few seconds before he nodded. “Okay. I’ll come home with you. But I reserve the right to leave again if I so choose.”

“I hope you stay,” Thor murmured, his eyes darting down to Loki’s lips again. He licked his own lips hungrily, the desperate desire to taste Loki burning under his skin. The brother’s found themselves leaning in towards each other again, their lips just barely brushing, when Sif’s voice bounced down the corridor.

“Thor, you’re one minute was up like five minutes ago!”

Thor squeezed his eyes shut and took a big step backwards away from his brother to avoid temptation. Loki was scowling when he opened his eyes, and Thor found himself chuckling. “Later, Brother Dear.”

He took a step away and ran his fingers through his hair, but looked back at his brother before he could leave. “I’ll see you at the car after school?” he asked carefully, afraid to spook Loki.

But Loki nodded reassuringly and gave Thor a small smile.

As Thor walked to Principal Fury’s office with Sif, he traced his fingers over his lips in a daze, chasing the taste and feel of Loki. Each step he took he could feel a magnetic tug in his chest, pulling him back to his brother. He knew deep down he was addicted now. Now he’d had a taste of his brother and there was no way he was going to be able to let Loki go ever again.


	11. Chapter Eleven (Loki's POV)

Loki had barely closed their front door behind him before Thor was pushing him back against it, their lips melding together. He reached up, tangling his fingers in Thor’s hair, and used the leverage to buck his hips up into his brother. Thor groaned heavily into the kiss, his tongue doing things to Loki that had his head spinning and his heart racing faster than a race car zooming around a racetrack.

“You. Are. Such. A. Tease,” Thor said, kissing down Loki’s jawline and up towards his ear with each word.

Loki wriggled in his brother’s embrace, pushing his hips up into Thor’s- which were grinding down to meet his. “I have-” he broke off with a gasp when Thor’s tongue dipped into the shell of his ear. “Fuck,” he groaned, his hands scrambling down the older boy’s back desperately. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Oh really?” Thor asked, his breath tickling Loki’s ear. “So in your opinion, your hand sliding further up my thigh until you were palming my cock through my pants as I drove doesn’t make you a tease?”

Loki grinned triumphantly. Now he could touch Thor however and whenever he pleased, he’d made sure to take advantage of it. He’d gone out of his way to walk past Thor in the halls for the rest of the day, brushing up against his brother and even letting his hand reach out to squeeze Thor’s ass as he walked past. It was just too tempting, and Loki suddenly couldn’t get enough of his brother.

“Nope, not at all,” Loki huffed. “Now would you shut up and put that mouth of yours to better use. Kiss me?” he asked as he arched into his brother’s body.

Thor didn’t even hesitate, just pushed Loki into the door even harder as he claimed his mouth. This kiss was hot and dirty, all tongues and teeth, sharp pants of air and little bites to the lips. When Thor attempted to pull away a few minutes later, Loki made a sharp noise of distress and pulled Thor’s head back down, reconnecting their lips again. Thor chuckled against his mouth, trailing his tongue over his brother’s bottom lip before sliding it back inside Loki’s mouth.

Loki hummed in relief. He darted his own tongue up against Thor’s, brushing against it teasingly, sending a shiver down the blond boy’s spine.

God, he’d never thought teasing his older brother like this would be so damn sexy. And yet, he couldn’t get enough. He just wanted more and more of Thor. The sudden urge to touch skin was overwhelming. Loki ripped the back of Thor’s shirt away from his jeans and slid his hands up Thor’s back; fingers dancing across skin tantalizingly. He felt a wash of relief as his fingernails scratched lightly against his brother’s skin.

“Holy fuck,” Thor muttered, his lips hovering just over Loki’s.

“Don’t stop,” Loki begged, bucking his hips up again into Thor’s, their erections rubbing together causing them both to gasp.

“We shouldn’t be doing this against the front door,” Thor pointed out, his nose rubbing against the spot behind Loki’s ear.

Honestly, Loki could care less where they were. He just didn’t like the idea of letting Thor go for the painstaking amount of time it would take to get to one of their rooms. Loki groaned under his breath and removed one of his hands from under his brother’s shirt to tug on Thor’s hair again, hoping his brother would get the hint.

“I should make you wait- tease you like you teased me in the car.” Thor’s lips trailed down his neck, sucking a kiss into the other side of his collarbone from the mark he’d made earlier.

“Thor!” Loki hissed, his head thunking against the wood of the door. “For fucks sake, just- please…”

Thor pulled back and bumped his nose against Loki’s, and Loki felt the urge to lean forward and wipe that smirk off his brother’s face. So he did. He kissed Thor this time, skimming his teeth over his brother’s bottom lip before finally sliding his tongue into Thor’s mouth. He relished the few moments of control; his knees going weak at the soft keening sound escaping from Thor’s mouth.

Eventually, Loki felt Thor pull his mouth away. He watched, mesmerized, as Thor’s tongue darted out to lick at his own lips, his eyes locked with Loki’s the entire time.

“Stop being a tease.”

“Then tell me what you want.” Thor brushed a barely there kiss across the corner of Loki’s lips, and Loki shuddered.

“I want to get off,” Loki snapped, gesturing to the bulge in his jeans.

Thor grinned, pushing his hips into Loki’s. “That can be arranged,” he murmured into Loki’s ear, causing the younger boy to huff out some choice words. “But not here.”

Loki whined, his fingers, which had settled in Thor’s hair, tugged warningly.

“Shush, it’s okay, Loki. I just meant let’s take this to my room, yeah? It’ll be worth it, I promise.”

Loki gave his brother a single nod, slowly letting go of the breath he’d been holding. Thor then grabbed his wrist and tugged him away from the door. As they walked, Thor brought Loki’s hand up to his mouth and began to place open-mouthed kisses along the back of his hand, before flipping it to give the same treatment to his palm.

Just when Loki was about to snap and shove Thor against the wall in a desperate kiss, Thor was shouldering his bedroom door open and ushering Loki inside. “We have half an hour before Mother and Father get back, so we have to make this quick,” Thor said, pushing Loki towards the bed.

Loki stalled though, his eyes darting around the room until they fell on the chair-- identical to his-- and an idea sprung to mind.

Thor’s gaze followed Loki’s, and he raised his eyebrow at his brother. “Are you going to tell me what you want?” he asked, licking a stripe up Loki’s neck.

The breath in Loki’s lungs caught, and he found himself going dizzy for a moment. He forced himself to nod, but the words got jumbled in his head as Thor continued to lick and suck at his neck.

“Well?” Thor prompted, after the room had fallen silent for far too long.

“I want- stop doing that I can’t think,” Loki complained, his body starting to feel hot and clammy. He heard the older boy chuckle as he moved up to bump his nose against Loki’s ear instead. “I want to sit in the chair and I want you to get me off in it.”

“Holy fuck,” Thor muttered, rutting his hips against Loki’s thigh, creating a delicious burn of friction between them. “Have you thought about that before? Fantasized about it?” he said, as he guided Loki backwards towards the chair.

A whine slipped past Loki’s lips as his mind wandered to the night when he had almost gotten himself off to that exact fantasy. A flash of satisfaction zipped through his body when Thor growled almost possessively in response. Thor’s animalistic reaction sent a hot flash of arousal down Loki’s back and caused his palms to begin to sweat in anticipation.

“Down,” Thor hissed, pushing Loki into the chair.

As soon as he was sat down, Loki spread his legs to tempt his brother, and Thor growled again, this time the sound rippled with desire. The sound was so delicious Loki found he couldn’t force his lungs to take in another gasp of air, as if his brother had stolen the air straight out of his body.

Thor quickly climbed into the younger boy’s lap, pushing their erections together perfectly. They both let out a hiss of pleasure, and Loki’s hands darted out to find purchase on Thor’s arms, both to ground himself and just because he wanted to get his hands back on his brother again.

“Please,” Loki cried, attempting to buck up into his brother.

Thor grunted, shifting himself slightly off of his younger brother. Before Loki could whine about the loss of contact, Thor grinded down onto his brother’s lap, and Loki’s eyes rolled back into his head. Loki dug his fingers into Thor’s arms as he let out a choked gasp; Thor’s name on his lips.

“F-fuck,” Thor groaned, dropping his head onto Loki’s shoulder for a moment. Loki felt his brother take a deep breath before he lifted his hips and grinded back down into him.

Loki stuttered for a breath and stars burst behind his eyes. His cock twitched in his pants, causing him to rock his hips up into Thor to create a burning drag of friction across his clothed erection. Before he could regain composure, Thor rutted against him again, and again, and again.

“Th-Thor,” Loki moaned. His eyes fell shut and he blindly tugged Thor’s face down to meet his own. Their lips met in sloppy kisses that matched the rhythm Thor had set, rocking his hips down to meet his brother’s. It didn’t take long for Loki to get impatient though, and he began to buck his hips up to meet Thor’s movements. It still wasn’t enough pressure against his aching cock to get him off, and he let out a frustrated groan.

“I-I… Thor, I need more,” Loki panted out, tugging on his brother’s hair desperately.

“Always so impatient,” Thor muttered.

“On a… time crunch… you big oaf,” Loki managed to gasp out as Thor grinded down onto him with an increased speed. He tipped his head back against the chair at Thor’s increased vigor, and he felt himself straining against the zipper of his jeans. If he didn’t get out of his pants soon he thought he might actually die from the overwhelming friction. But the thought of coming in his pants from Thor’s simple grinding sent a bolt of hot arousal zinging into his crotch, and he felt a spurt of pre-come soak into his pants.

“Thor,” he gasped out, reaching for his brother’s hand, which was resting on the back of the chair next to his head. He tugged Thor’s hand down, pressing it against the bulge in his pants. “Please.” He didn’t care what Thor decided to do, he just knew he needed something more.

Thor didn’t need to be told twice. He instantly shifted his weight, allowing room for his hand between their bodies. His hand shook as he tugged on the zipper and slipped Loki’s cock out. As soon as his fingers wrapped around the shaft, Loki let out a cry, arching into his brother’s body. Thor let out a moan of pleasure and swiped his finger across the beads of pre-come, bringing it to his lips to lick up the traces.

Loki let out a sob at the sight, his cock twitching and more pre-come slipping out of the head, dripping down his cock as dark desire rippled down his spine. “Please, please, just please,” he babbled, thrusting his hips up into Thor’s hand.

Quickly scrambling to grab the bottle of lotion he kept in his desk drawer, Thor slathered his free hand in lotion and slid his fingers up and down Loki’s shaft a couple of times experimentally. Loki half-sobbed, half-moaned in relief at the touch, frantically bucking his hips up to fuck himself on Thor’s hand.

Loki tried desperately to keep his eyes locked on Thor as his brother’s fist pumped up and down his dick, but the sensations were too strong and he found himself squeezing his eyes shut tightly as the pleasure rocked through his body. He could vaguely hear Thor moaning compliments and urging him forward, but it was washed out by the waves of lust crashing in his ears.

Everything he had imagined and pictured in his mind when he’d attempted to get himself off was a mere blip on the radar in comparison to how good it felt to actually have Thor’s hands on him. It almost felt unreal, and he had the sudden urge to ground himself in the moment to prove this was actually happening. It took all his energy to force his eyes back open, and when he did, he had to clamp down on the urge to come right then and there at the sight of his brother’s hand flying across his cock. Thor’s gaze was laser-focused on him, and he could see the arousal etched into his brother’s features.

“Fuck,” he cried, and he felt his dick spasm in Thor’s hand.

Thor’s eyes darted up to his face, and, as if reading Loki’s mind, he leaned up and licked his way into Loki’s mouth.

Loki moaned into the kiss, finally pleased to have Thor’s lips on his again. They kissed for a few blissful moments before Thor pulled back, panting into the crook of his brother’s neck. It was only then Loki’s attention was dragged down his body and he noticed Thor was humping his leg, rubbing his clothed cock over his lower thigh as he jerked Loki off. The sight was incredibly arousing, and Loki felt himself teetering on the edge of release. The burning heat was building in his body, making his head spin with how much he wanted his brother. Every nerve ending in his body felt like it was on fire. The loud gasps and pants mixed in the air, making Loki even more sensitive when Thor dragged his tongue around the shell of his ear.

“Please. More. Harder,” Loki gasped, his eyes watering with the overwhelming need coiling in his stomach. He was so close, and this time, nothing was going to stop him from coming.

Thor growled lowly, his hand squeezing harder as he twisted his wrist on the upward stroke. “Is this what you wanted?” Thor panted out harshly, his breaths coming out in shallow gasps.

The ability to form words was long gone from Loki’s mind; the only word looping in his brain was his brother’s name. Instead, he tugged Thor down by the back of the neck and sucked his way into his mouth, hoping his brother would understand what he was trying to say.

His actions were rewarded when Thor rubbed his thumb over the head of his cock on the next upward stroke. Loki’s vision suddenly exploded, and he found himself sobbing Thor’s name as the pleasure cascaded down his spine and erupted from his body. The only thing he was cognizant of was the delicious way Thor’s hand was twisting up his cock, coaxing him through his orgasm.

White hot electricity burned through his body, the intensity of his orgasm unlike anything he’d ever felt before. Everything went blank, leaving only the pulsing waves of sheer relief mixed with lust; splashes of come creating stripes across his shirt and Thor’s pants. He felt himself slump down against the back of the seat, sated and exhausted as the last drips of come pumped out onto Thor’s fingers still wrapped around his cock.

When he blinked his eyes open a few minutes later, his vision hazy and mind sluggish with the residual pleasure, he registered Thor’s head resting in the crook of his neck and a wet patch seeping into his jeans at his lower thigh.

Sensing his brother’s movements, Thor lifted his head up, his eyes glassy and a sappy smile on his face. He leaned forward and kissed Loki sweetly; gentle pecks and soft caresses of tongue.

Loki sighed softly into the kisses, melting into his brother’s touches blissfully. When Thor attempted to pull back, Loki whined and chased Thor’s lips. The blond teenager laughed and allowed Loki to drag him into another round of kisses.

“We need,” Thor tried to say, but Loki cut him off by nipping at his lip. Thor groaned and bucked his hips down into Loki.

“Fuck. Yes, please,” Loki responded, snapping his own hips up to meet his brother’s.

Thor reached down and palmed at Loki’s dick, which was quickly becoming hard again. “We can’t. We don’t have time for another round,” Thor said, regret tinging his words as he forced himself to pull his hand away.

Loki’s eyes snapped open, a treacherous look of betrayal dancing behind his eyes. Thor leaned down and kissed him again. “I’m sorry. Later tonight, if you can promise to be absolutely silent.”

“I hate you,” Loki hissed. He pushed his hips up into Thor’s thigh anyway, the need for friction starting to burn its way down his spine again.

“No, you don’t.” Thor pressed one last lingering kiss to Loki’s lips before he pushed himself up and off Loki’s lap.

“Don’t leave me like this. Get your ass back here and fix this,” Loki cried.

Hovering over Loki, Thor grinned wickedly. “That’s what you get for teasing me in the car. I’m going to wash off before they get home. I suggest you do the same.” With that, Thor pushed away entirely and walked off to the bathroom.

“Fucking tease,” Loki shouted after him, but the words contained no malice.

When he walked past the bathroom to get back to his own room, Thor’s hand darted out, latched onto his sweaty shirt, and dragged him forward. Their chests bumped together, and Thor swooped down to claim Loki’s mouth in another searing kiss. When they pulled away, chests heaving, Thor bumped their noses together and murmured a soft, “I love you.”

“I know that, you great oaf.” Loki leaned up to press another kiss, softer and slower this time, to Thor’s lips; hoping to convey his mutual feelings without having to say them. When they broke apart, the lovesick smile on Thor’s face let Loki know that his brother understood exactly what he’d been trying to say.


	12. Chapter Twelve (Loki's POV)

“Thor Odinson! Get your ass downstairs right now. I cannot believe you got yourself suspended again for a week for getting into another fight,” Frigga’s voice echoed up the stairs and into Thor’s bedroom.

Loki looked over at Thor and raised his eyebrow at his brother, who gave him a slight nod. “Coming, Mother,” Thor responded. He stood up, motioning for Loki to follow him.

Loki watched Thor move across the room but he found himself frozen to the seat. Almost instantly, Thor noticed the lack of his brother’s presence and turned around. “Aren’t you coming?”

When he started to shake his head, Thor strode back across the room, reached out to tilt Loki’s head up, and kissed him firmly on the mouth. When he broke the kiss, he traced his thumb over his brother’s lower lip. He gave Loki a soft, encouraging smile that equally made Loki want to punch him in the face and kiss him until he couldn’t breathe. Quickly, Thor brushed one last gentle kiss to Loki’s mouth before he pulled away.

When Thor extended his hand to him, Loki’s instant reaction was to push his brother’s hand away with a scowl. Thor wasn’t deterred though, and offered his hand again. This time, Loki reached out and grasped his older brother’s hand. The older boy tugged him up and gave his hand a quick squeeze.

This time, Loki returned Thor’s smile, relishing the last few seconds they got to hold hands. As they walked out of the door, Thor’s hand slipped from his and Loki felt that creeping sense of panic crawling into his chest.

As they reached the stairs, Thor looked back and offered Loki a reassuring smile. ‘I’ve got your back,’ he mouthed at Loki.

Loki rolled his eyes at the sentiment, but some of the tension he’d been holding in his chest loosened and he found it easier to take a breath.

Thor waited another couple of seconds, watching Loki’s face carefully, before he descended the stairs. Loki fell into step behind Thor, keeping himself as close to Thor’s back as he could. He reached out and brushed his fingers over Thor’s spine right before they reached the bottom step, dragging a shudder out of his brother.

Thor reached back, his fingers brushing against the knuckles of Loki’s hand; a last sign of asking if Loki was okay. Loki pressed his fingers more firmly into the warmth of Thor’s back before he pulled his hand away.

“Mother? Father?” Thor called out.

Their parents rounded the corner from the kitchen into the foyer, and Thor stepped aside, allowing Loki to come into his parents view.

Frigga let out a sob and threw herself across the foyer, wrapping Loki up in her arms and squeezing him tightly. “My son,” she cried, pressing his head to her chest.

Loki resisted for maybe a second before he sagged in relief. He buried his face into his mother’s blouse and locked his arms around her back.

“You’re here. You came back,” Frigga murmured, her voice cracking with unspoken emotions. “You are never to pull a stunt like that again, young man, do you hear me? I refuse to lose my son like that.”

Loki struggled to take a breath, the words lodging in his throat and tears burning his eyes. “Am I? Your son?” he forced himself to ask. It was a question he needed answered, and yet couldn’t bear to hear what the answer would be.

Frigga pulled back, holding Loki at arm’s length. “You are our son. Blood does not make a family, Loki. When we found you, we swore you were nothing less than ours from that moment onwards.”

Loki rubbed at his eyes to stop the tears from falling. When he looked up, Odin was hovering behind Frigga. “Telling you of your adoption slipped from our minds a long time ago.”

Frigga glanced over her shoulder, shaking her head softly. “What your Father is trying to say is that you became our son so seamlessly and so perfectly, the thought of you having been adopted vanished. You were just ours.” Frigga’s thumb came up to stroke across his cheek.

“Your Mother is right. We are your parents, and you are our son. Any other outside forces do not mean anything to us. My words spoken last week were rash and hurtful, and they did not reflect my true thoughts. You are equally my son as Thor is,” Odin said, reaching out and placing a hand on Loki’s arm.

Tears once again burned Loki’s vision as his eyes darted between his parents. He opened his mouth to say something, but was thrown off when he felt Thor step up behind him, his fingers brushing against his hips, before they came up to wrap around Loki’s back in a hug. “You’ll always be my brother,” Thor spoke softly.

That was the breaking point for Loki. His emotions broke forth like a dam overflowing. A half-laugh, half-sob slipped from his lips, and next thing he knew, he was wrapped up in a family hug.

“This is your home, Loki, and we are your family,” Frigga said gently, her words choked up.

“Your Mother and I- and I am sure your brother agrees, too- would like you to stay here with us. Your place is here, in this home, with your family,” Odin spoke.

Loki cocked his head to the side to catch his brother’s eye. Thor smiled warmly at him, his left hand having settled back on his hip again, almost possessively, as if he were claiming Loki in every way he could. Loki felt a zing of arousal and had to tear his eyes away from Thor’s before his thoughts could stray down that pathway.

He looked back at his parents, and found himself leaning into the protection of his mother’s arms. Words always evaded him when things got emotional. He usually leaned on his brother, allowing Thor to speak for the both of them, but this time he needed to be the one to say what needed to be said.

“I want to stay here, please; be part of the family, if you’ll have me,” Loki mumbled, tucking his head into his mother’s shoulder. He could feel her shoulders shaking from her sobs as she wrapped him tighter in her arms.

“We’ll always have you, Loki.” Odin said.

Loki smiled, hiccupping as he took a breath. This had been more emotions in a 24 hour span than he’d ever felt in his life. Suddenly, he felt emotionally drained, and he leaned more of his weight into his mother.

Frigga noticed immediately, her hand coming up to stroke the back of his head. “Why don’t we order in some pizza and have a family movie night? Whatever pizza and movie you want.”

“If you say Les Mis one more time so help me God,” Thor muttered.

Loki burst out laughing, and the sappy moment was broken. He reached out and shoved at Thor’s shoulder, dislodging him from his place pressed up against Loki’s back. “For that comment, we’re ordering veggie pizza with all the pineapples they can fit on.”

“Don’t you dare. If that’s the case, you’re walking to school on Monday,” Thor teased back.

“Talking of school,” Odin said, looking at Thor expectantly.

Thor dropped his head sullenly. “It won’t happen again, Sir.”

“It was my fault,” Loki piped up. Three heads snapped to look at him; Thor giving him a shake of his head. “I was angry, and I purposefully riled Thor up until he lashed out because I felt betrayed by him about all of this.”

Frigga and Odin shared a look before Frigga sighed, rubbing Loki’s shoulder reassuringly. “We’ll talk things out with the principal. As long as there is no more behavior like that from either of you again. Is that clear?”

“Yes, Mother,” Loki and Thor replied at the same time.

“Good. Now, why don’t you two go pick a movie while we order the pizza,” she said, holding Loki close one last time before she let him go. “Don’t worry, I’ll order your favorite.” Placing a kiss on top of his head, Frigga slipped from the room towards the kitchen.

“Let your brother pick whatever movie he wants,” Odin said, directing his words at Thor, before he followed his wife to the kitchen.

Once they were alone in the foyer, Thor stepped up behind Loki, his mouth hovering just over Loki’s ear. “Do you remember what happened the last time we had a movie night? The night we almost kissed. Oh how much I’d give for a repeat performance, except this time, with more kissing and less wrestling.”

The shot of arousal Loki had felt earlier bolted down his spine again, and he had to squeeze his eyes shut tightly to control his sudden desire to spin around and attack Thor’s mouth with his own.

“Maybe, if you’re good, I’ll keep my word about a round two after the movies over,” Thor murmured, his tongue dipping into the shell of Loki’s ear.

Before Loki could even recognize what was happening, Thor had placed a quick open-mouthed kiss to his neck and was gone. He blinked several times to recompose himself and looked back to see his brother had already settled in front of the TV, pulling out a stack of DVDs.

“Such a fucking tease,” Loki muttered, stalking over and flopping down next to his brother. Loki darted his eyes to the kitchen. His parents backs were to them as they looked at the takeout menu and spoke their order over the phone.

When Loki looked back to his brother, Thor was leaning in his personal space, lips hovering inches from his own. And who could blame him if he gave into the temptation and closed the gap to briefly lock lips with his brother. Thor hummed softly into the kiss, and Loki tangled his fingers into blond hair.

When their parents came into the room a few minutes later the title screen to Grease was playing on the screen and Thor and Loki were settled on the loveseat together, Loki’s legs draped across Thor’s lap casually. Frigga smiled at them, telling them how happy she was to see them acting like their usual selves again.

But when the movie started and everyone's attention was on the screen, Thor’s hand slipped underneath the material at the bottom of Loki’s jeans and he traced lazy patterns onto bare skin, while Loki’s head settled into the crook of Thor's shoulder, where he could brush chaste kisses to his brother's neck and jaw. And if both boys claimed they were exhausted after the movie ended and happened to slip into Loki’s room together, well, that was their little secret.


End file.
